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Book 





















% 


OF THE 


AMERICAN ACADEMY OF 
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 


Social and Economic Conditions 

in 

The Dominion of Canada 


Publication Office 

The Rumford Pre»« Building 

CONCORD, N. H. 


Editorial Office 

30th Street and Woodland Avenue 

PHILADELPHIA 


Vbl. GVn MAY, 1923 , No, 196 






THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL 

AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 




Membership*; The subscription price of THE ANNALS of 
the American Academy of Political and Social Science is $5.00 
per" year. Single copies are sold at $1.00 each. THE 
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have the privilege of applying to the Editorial Council for 
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THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 


^ Published bi«monthly at Concord, N. H., as required by the Act of August 24.1912 

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Sworn to and subscribed before me this 28th day of March. 1923. 


Term expires March 7,1925. 
Form 3526 


FRANCIS H. HOY, Jr.. Notary Publio. 


Issued Bi-Monthly by ike American Academy of Political and Social Science at 
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cf October 3,1917, aTdhormid Octoher 26,1920. 








SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

IN 

THE DOMINION OF CANADA 


t^c 


Snnate 


Volume CVII May, 1923 

Editok: CLYDE L. KING 
Associate Editor: J. H. WILLITS 
Assistant Editor: J. T. SALTER 

Editorial Council: C. H. CRENNAN, DAVID FRIDAY, A. A. GIESECKE, A. R. HATTON 
AMOS S. HERSHEY, E. M. HOPKINS. S. S. HUEBNER, CARL KELSEY, J. P. LICH- 
TENBERGER, ROSWELL C. McCREA« E. M. PATTERSON, L. S. ROWE, 

HENRY SUZZALO, T. W. VAN METRE, F. D. WATSON 


Editor in Charge of this Volume 
W. P. M. KENNEDY, M.A., LITT.D. 

University of Toronto 


With a Supplement on Memorial Addresses on the 
Life and Services of Simon N. Patten 



The American Academy of Political and Social Science 
39th Street and Woodland Avenue 
Philadelphia 
1923 



I 





Copyright, 1923, by 

The American Academy of Political and Social Science 

All rights reserved 


EUROPEAN AGENTS 

ENGLAND: P. S. King & Son, Ltd., 2 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London, S. W. 
FRANCE: L.'Larose, Rue Soufflot, 22, Paris. 

GERMANY: Mayer & Muller, 2 Prinz Louis Ferdinandstrasse, Berlin, N. W. 

ITALY: Giornale Degli Economisti, via Monte Savello, Palazzo Orsini, Rome. 

SPAIN: E. Dossat, 9 Plaza de Santa Ana, Madrid. 


^ J A 


cr 

n'> 

CONTENTS 

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA 

PAQE 

EDITOR’S PREFACE. vii 


PART 1—POPULATION 

THE GROWTH OF POPULATION IN CANADA. . 1 

R. H. Coats, Dominion Statistician, Ottawa 

THE FRENCH CANADIANS IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. 7 

G. E. Marquis, Provincial Statistician, Quebec {Translated hy Louis Allen, Ph.D., Uni¬ 
versity College, Toronto) 

THE FRENCH CANADIANS OUTSIDE OF QUEBEC. 13 

The Hon. Senator N. A. Belcourt, P.C., LL.D., K.C., The Senate, Ottawa 

EMIGRATION OF CANADIANS TO THE UNITED STATES. 25 

G. E. Jackson, Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Toronto 

THE IMMIGRANT SETTLER. 35 

P. H. Bryce, M.A., M.D., Ottawa, Formerly Chief Medical Officer of Immigration 

THE CANADIANIZATION OF THE IMMIGRANT SETTLER. 45 

J. H. Haslam, President, Saskatchewan Land Settlement Association, Regina 

ORIENTAL IMMIGRATION. 50 

T. H. Boggs, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Economics, University of British Columbia 

CANADA’S IMMIGRATION POLICY.,. 56 

Robert J. C. Stead, Director of Publicity, Federal Department of Immigration and 
Colonization, Ottawa 

THE ABORIGINAL RACES. 63 


Duncan C. Scott, Litt.D., Deputy Superintendent-General, Federal Department of Indian 
AflFairs, Ottawa 

PART II—RESOURCES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT 


(a) Agricultural Resources 

AGRICULTURE IN EASTERN CANADA.:. 67 

W. C. Hopper, B.S.A., Field Husbandman, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa 

WESTERN AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 74 


Norman P. Lambert, Assistant to the President, Maple Leaf Milling Co., Winnipeg; Ex- 
Secretary to the Canadian Council of Agriculture 

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN CANADA—ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMEMT 82 
E. S. Hopkins, B.S.A., M.S., Dominion Field Husbandman, Central Experimental Farm, 
Ottawa 

(b) Other Resources 


THE FISHERIES OF CANADA. 88 

Edward E. Prince, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S.C.y Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Ottawa 

THE FORESTS AND FOREST INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 95 

C. D. Howe, M.S., Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto 

THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF CANADA... 102 

Balmer Neilly, B.A.Sc., M.E., Secretary, Ontario Mining Association, Toronto 

WATER POWERS OF CANADA.... 110 

Prepared by Staff of Dominion Water Power Branch, Department of the Interior, Ottawa 

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN CANADA.. 115 

Frank D. Adams, LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, McGill 
University, Montreal 


111 



















IV 


Contents 


PART 111—EDUCATION 

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION IN CANADA. 120 

S. A. Cudmore, B.A. (Tor), M.A. (Oxon), F.S.S., Chief of the Education Statistics and 
Editor, Canada Year Book, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa 

HIGHER EDUCATION.f. 126 

G. S. Brett, M.A., Professor of Philosophy and late Vice-Chairman, Board of Graduate 
Studies, University of Toronto 

PART IV—TRANSPORTATION 

THE CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS. 131 

D. A. MacGibbon, M.A., Ph.D,, Professor of Political Economy, University of Alberta 

PART V—MONEY AND BANKING 

CANADIAN BANKING. 136 

Sir Edmund Walker, C.V.O., LL.D., D.C.L., President, The Canadian Bank of Commerce, 
Toronto 

COMPARATIVE PRICES IN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.. 149 

H. Michell, M.A., Professor of Political Economy, McMaster University, Toronto 

PART VI—FOREIGN TRADE 

THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CANADA. 155 

Victor Ross, Vice-President Imperial Oil Limited, Toronto 

THE FLOW OF CAPITAL—CANADA. 170 

Harvey E. Fisk, Bankers’ Trust Company, New York City 

CANADA’S OUTSTANDING IMPORTS. 183 

S. H. Logan, Supervisor, Foreign Department, The Canadian Bank of Commerce, Toronto 

MARKETING WHEAT. 187 

James Stewart, of James Stewart & Co., Ltd., Grain Exporters and President, Maple 
Leaf Milling Co., Winnipeg 

PART Vll—PUBLIC FINANCE 

THE CANADIAN TARIFF. 193 

J. A. Stevenson, Parliamentary Press Gallery, Ottawa 

THE BRITISH PREFERENCE. 198 

John Lewis, Editorial Staff, The Globe, Toronto 

CANADA’S BUDGETARY SYSTEM. 204 

B. J. Roberts, B.A., Secretary, Department of Finance, Ottawa 

THE WAR FINANCE OF CANADA. 209 

Right Hon. Sir Thomas White, K.C.M.G. (Federal Minister of Finance, 1911-19), Toronto 

DOMINION AND PROVINCIAL TAXATION IN CANADA. 216 

H. R. Kemp, M.A., Department of Political Economy, University of Toronto 

MUNICIPAL TAXATION IN CANADA. 221 

Horace L. Brittain, M.A., Ph.D., Director of the Citizens’ Research Institute of Canada, 
Toronto 

PART Vlll—SOME SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS AND PROBLEMS 

CANADA’S RURAL PROBLEM.,. 227 

W. C. Good, M.P., House of Commons, Ottawa 

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IN THE CANADIAN WEST. 238 

C. R. Fay, M.A., D.Sc., Late Fellow Christ’s College, Cambridge; Professor of Economic 
History, University of Toronto 

THE AGRARIAN MOVEMENT. 248 

M. H. Staples, Educational Secretary, United Farmers of Ontario, Toronto 

PROTECTION OF WORKERS IN INDUSTRY. 254 

Marion Findlay, B.A., Department of Labour, Toronto 





















Contents 


V 


THE RETURNED SOLDIER. . 267 

The Hon. H. S. Beland, P.C., M.D., M.P., Minister'of Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment, 
Ottawa 

DIVORCE IN CANADA. 275 

The Hon. Mr. Justice H. Rives Hall, Puisne Judge of the Court of King’s Bench for the 
Province of Quebec, Montreal 

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN CANADA... 282 

R. H. Coats, Dominion Statistician, Ottawa 

UNEMPLOYMENT AND ORGANIZATION OF THE LABOUR MARKET. 286 

Bryce M. Stewart, Director, Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Employment Exchange, 
Chicago (formerly Director of the Employment Service of Canada) 

ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION IN CANADA. 294 

R. M. Maciver, M.A., D.Phil., Professor of Economics, University of Toronto 

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN CANADA 299 
J. S. Woodsworth, M.P., House of Commons, Ottawa 


PART IX 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS IN CANADA 303 


W. P. M. Kennedy, M.A., Litt.D., University of Toronto 

A PLAN FOR STATE LABOR STATISTICS. 308 

Leo Wolman, New School for Social Research, New York City 

BOOK DEPARTMENT. 320 

INDEX. 327 

SUPPLEMENT 


MEMORIAL ADDRESSES ON THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF SIMON N. PATTEN 333 


I 



















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EDITOR’S PREFACE 


Recent years have intensified and 
developed the organized social and 
industrial life of Canada, and, with 
that development, problems—some of 
an international nature, some peculiar 
to the Dominion—have forced them¬ 
selves to the front and demanded con¬ 
sideration. An effort is made in this 
volume to present facts and trends as 
to these modern Canadian activities 
by writers most familiar with the 
various fields. 

In the first section the general ques¬ 
tion of population is considered with 
special reference to characteristic and 
peculiar conditions and to the issues 
raised by immigration and Canadi- 
anization. This may be called the 
human background. The next sec¬ 
tion deals with the resources of the 
country, their development and con¬ 
servation with special articles on ag¬ 
ricultural and industrial research. The 
next sections cover the problems of 
education—primary, secondary, and 
higher; transportation, with special 
consideration of the national railways; 
money and banking, in which com¬ 
parisons are made with the United 
States in relation to comparative prices 
and to banking; foreign trade, with a 
general review, and detailed discus¬ 


sions on the movement of capital, 
essential imports, and the marketing 
of wheat; public finance in its several 
aspects; while a final section attempts 
to deal with a group of social experi¬ 
ments and problems from their peculiar 
Canadian angle. 

I venture to hope that the volume 
will prove of value and that it will 
stimulate interest in Canada and her 
public affairs. I should like to thank 
most sincerely the writers who have 
contributed articles. I hope that I 
have succeeded in obtaining not only a 
representative group of writers but a 
group of sufficient reputation as ex¬ 
perts to give to this number of The 
Annals a distinct and valid place in 
Canadian history. 

I should like to add that I take no 
responsibility for the opinions ex¬ 
pressed in any article. I have made 
it clear to each writer that the respon¬ 
sibility is a personal one, and as a 
consequence I have deliberately made 
no attempt to correct the material in 
any of the manuscripts or to suggest 
the inclusion or exclusion of any 
particular judgments or opinions. 

W. P. M. Kennedy. 
University of Toronto, Toronto. 






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The Growth of Population in Canada 

By R. H. Coats 

Dominion Statistician, Ottawa 


I T may not be generally known that 
the credit of taking the first census 
of modern times belongs to Canada. 
The year was 1665, the census that of 
the colony of New France. Still earlier 
records of settlement at Port Royal 
(1605) and Quebec (1608) are extant; 
but the Census of 1665 was a system¬ 
atic “nominal” enumeration of the 
people, taken on the de jure principle, 
on a fixed date, showing age, sex, 
occupation, and conjugal and family 
condition. A supplementary enquiry 
in 1667 included the areas under culti¬ 
vation and the numbers of sheep and 
cattle. When it is recalled that in Eu¬ 
rope the first census dates only from the 
Eighteenth Century (those of France 
and England from the first year of the 
Nineteenth), and that in the United 
States as well the census begins only 
with 1790, the achievement of the prim¬ 
itive St. Lawrence colony in instituting 
what is today one of the principal in¬ 
struments of government may call for 
more than passing appreciation. 

Early Census Figures 

The Census of 1665 (the results of 
which occupy 154 pages in manuscript, 
still to be seen in the Archives at Paris, 
with a transcript at Ottawa) showed 
some 3,215 souls. It was repeated at 
intervals more or less regularly for a 
hundred years. By 1685 the total 
had risen to 12,263, including 1,538 
Indians collected in villages. By the 
end of the century it had passed 15,000, 
and this was doubled in the next 
twenty-five years. Not to present 
further details of the rate of growth, 
it ma^ be said that at the time of the 


British Conquest (1763) the population 
of New France was about 70,000, 
whilst another 10,000 French (thinned 
to these proportions by the expulsion 
of the Acadians) were scattered through 
what is now Nova Scotia, New Bruns¬ 
wick and Prince Edward Island. The 
British population of Nova Scotia was 
at this time about 9,000. 

After the Conquest, our chief re¬ 
liance for statistics must be laid for 
half a century and more upon the re¬ 
ports of colonial governors—^more or 
less sporadic—^though censuses of the 
different sections under British rule 
were taken at irregular intervals. 
British settlement on a substantial 
scale in the Gulf Provinces and in On¬ 
tario dates only from the Loyalist 
movement which followed the Ameri¬ 
can Revolution, at the end of which, 
i.e.y about the year of the Constitu¬ 
tional Act (1791), the population of 
Lower Canada was approximately 
163,000, whilst the newly constituted 
Province of Upper Canada under 

Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe numbered 
perhaps 15,000, and the addition of 
the Gulf Colonies brought the total 
well over 200,000. A decade later 
Canada began the Nineteenth Century 
with a population of probably not less 
than 250,000 or 260,000. 

Upper Canada. (1824) 150,069 

“ “ (1840) 432,159 

Lower Canada. (1822) 427,465 

“ “ (1844) 697,084 

New Brunswick. (1824) 74,176 

“ “ (1840) 156,162 

Nova Scotia. (1817) 81,351 

“ “ (1838) 202,575 

P.E. Island. (1822) 24,600 

“ “ (1841) 47,042 


1 












The Annals of the American Academy 




Around 1820 and 1840, respectively, 
these numbers had reached the follow¬ 
ing proportions : (see p. 1) 

Establishment of Regular 
Census-Taking 

The policy of desultory census¬ 
taking was ended in 1847 by an Act 
of the United Provinces creating a 
“Board of Registration and Statistics,” 
with instructions “to collect statistics 
and adopt measures for disseminating 
or publishing the same,” and providing 
also for a decennial census. The first 
census thereunder was taken in 1851, 
and as similar censuses were taken by 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 
the same year, we have now a regular 
measure of population growth in 
Canada over the past three quarters 
of a century. The statistics of these 
censuses, by provinces, are collected in 
the accompanying table, on which 
comment for those familiar with Ca¬ 
nadian history is largely superfiuous 
and, for the earlier decades at least, 
impossible within the confines of a 
limited sketch. SuflSce it to note that 
the fifties saw a very rapid develop¬ 
ment, especially in Ontario, and that 
the sixties showed only less substantial 
gains. In the years following Con¬ 
federation, again, there was a spurt, 
the increase between 1871 and 1881 
(which included several lean years 
towards the end) being 635,553, or 
17.23 per cent. In neither of the two 
decades next following, however, was 
this record equalled, either absolutely 
or relatively, the gains in each being 
under 600,000, or 12 per cent. With 
the end of the century the population 
of Canada had reached approximately 
five and a quarter millions, or twenty 
times that of 1800. 

Twentieth Century Expansion 

It is within the confines of the pres¬ 
ent century that the most spectacular 


expansion of the Canadian population 
has taken place. The outstanding 
feature was, of course, the opening to 
settlement of the “last best West.” 
The unorganized territories of British 
North America had been ceded to the 
Dominion soon after Confederation, 
and the West had been tapped and 
traversed by the Canadian Pacific 
Railway in the eighties and nineties. 
But though western population dou¬ 
bled with each of these decades, it was 
only with the launching of a large-scale 
immigration movement after 1900 that 
western settlement and production be¬ 
came a first-rate economic factor. 
Simultaneously an almost equally strik¬ 
ing development occurred in the in¬ 
dustrial centers of Eastern Canada, 
which formed the immediate basis for 
the move upon the West. At the 
back, of course, was the heavy infiow 
of British capital—a total of two and a 
half billions of dollars within a dozen 
years—which went to finance the large 
constructive undertakings (chiefly rail¬ 
way and municipal) which character¬ 
ized the movement and which repre¬ 
sented at botton the traditional policy 
of England in search of cheap and 
abundant food for her workshop popu¬ 
lation. The years 1900 to 1910, in 
brief, form the decas mirahilis of Ca¬ 
nadian expansion. The immigration 
movement just mentioned, which had 
previously run well under 50,000 per 
annum, rose rapidly to over five times 
that volume, eventually passing 400,- 
000 in a single year. In the ten years 
1900 to 1910 it totalled over 1,800,000, 
and though at least a third of these 
were lost (partly in the return to 
Europe of labor temporarily attracted 
by the railway and other developments 
in progress, and partly in the never- 
ceasing and natural “drag” of the 
United States upon a virile and less 
wealthy people), it formed the chief 
factor in the gain of 34 per cent all- 


The Growth of Population in Canada 


3 


round which the total population of 
Canada registered in that decade, and 
which was larger than the relative 
growth of any other country during the 
same period. The movement was 
continued and even intensified in the 
first three years of the second decade 
of the century, after which a re¬ 
cession set in to which the outbreak 
of the war gave a new and wholly 
unexpected turn. Nevertheless the 
period which closed with the Census 
of 1921 again showed over 1,800,000 


in immigrant arrivals in Canada, 
and though the proportionate loss 
of these was very heavy (probably 
as much as two-thirds^ Canada’s 
relative gain for the decade again 
headed the list of countries, her 22 
per cent increase comparing with one 
of 21 per cent for Australia, 20 per 
cent for New Zealand, 14 per cent for 
the United States, and very much 
lower rates for the countries of con¬ 
tinental Europe. 

The story by provinces is told in 


Population of Canada, 1851-1881 


Provinces 

1851 

1861 

1871 

1881 

Prince Edward Island. 

66,000* 

80,857 

94,021 

108,891 

Nova Scotia... 

276,854 

330,857 

387,800 

440,572 

New Brunswick. 

193,800 

252,047 

285,594 

321,233 

Quebec. 

890,261 

1,111,566 

1,191,516 

1,359,027 

Ontario. 

952,004 

1,396,091 

1,620,851 

1,926,922 

IManitoba. 



25,228 

62,260 

Saskatchewan. 




Alberta. 





British Columbia. 



36,247 

49,459 

Yukon. 



Northwest Territories. 

6,000* 

15,000* 

48,000* 

56,446 

Total. 

2,384,919 

3,156,418 

3,689,257 

4,324,810 


* Estimated. 


Population of Canada, 1891-1921 


Provinces 

1891 

1901 

1911 

1921 

Prince Edward Island. 

109,078 

103,259 

93,728 

88,615 

Nova Scotia. 

450,396 

459,574 

492,338 

523,837 

New Brunswick. 

321,263 

331,120 

351,889 

387,876 

Quebec. 

1,488,535 

1,648,898 

2,003,232 

2,361,199 

Ontario. 

2,114,321 

2,182,947 

2,523,274 

2,933,662 

Manitoba. 

152,506 

255,211 

455,614 

610,118 

finskatr'hpwa.n . 

91,279 

492,432 

757,510 

Albprta. . 


73,022 

374,663 

588,454 

Tlritish Cnliimbia . 

98,173 

178,657 

392,480 

524,582 

Yiiknn . 

27,219 

8,512 

4,157 

Nnrthwpst Tpmt.orics. 

98,967 

20,129 

18,481 

7,988 



Totfll . 

4,833,239 

5,371,315 

7,206,643 

8,788,483 

















































































4 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the table. It may be added that it is 
only in recent years that anything 
better than a guess is possible as to 
natural increase in Canada, but the 
excess of births over deaths was proba¬ 
bly not less than 1,000,000 during the 
decade 1910-1920. Canada’s loss in 
killed during the war was 56,000, 
but if the victims of the Spanish in¬ 


fluenza be regarded as a war loss the 
total was over 100,000. It would 
seem fair to assume that but for the 
war the census just taken would have 
shown 9 millions in Canada instead of 
the 8,788,483, which is the authentic 
count. 

In 1881 the “centre” of population 
east and w^est was in the county of 


Rural and Urban Population by Provinces and Territories, 1891-1901 


Provinces 

1891 

1901 

Rural 

Urban 

Rural 

Urban 

Canada . 

3,296,141 

1,537,098 

3,357,093 

2,014,222 

Alberta. 



54,489 

18,533 

British Columbia. 

60,945 

37,228 

88,478 

90,179 

Manitoba. 

111,498 

41,008 

184,775 

70,436 

New Brunswick. 

272,362 

48,901 

253,835 

77,285 

Nova Scotia. 

373,403 

76,993 

330,191 

129,383 

Ontario. 

1,295,323 

818,998 

1,246,969 

935,978 

Prince Edward Island. 

94,823 

14,255 

88,304 

14,955 

Quebec. 

988,820 

499,719 

994,833 

654,065 

Saskatchewan. 



77,013 

14,266 

Yukon. 



18,077 

9,142 

Northwest Territories. 



20,129 

R, C. Navy. 










Rural and Urban Population by Provinces and Territories, 1911-1921 


Provinces 

1911 

1921 

Rural 

Urban 

Rural 

Urban 

Canada . 

3,933,696 

3,272,947 

4,435,710 

4,352,773 

Alberta. 

236,633 

137,662 

365,550 

222,904 

British Columbia. . . ! . 

188,796 

203,684 

277,020 

247,562 

Manitoba. 

261,029 

200,365 

348,502 

261,616 

New Bnmswick. 

252,342 

99,547 

263,432 

124,444 

Nova Scotia. 

306,210 

186,128 

296,799 

227,038 

Ontario. 

1,198,803 

1,328,489 

1,226,379 

1,707,283 

Prince Edward Island. 

78,758 

14,970 

69,522 

19,093 

Quebec. 

1,038,934 

966,842 

1,038,630 

1,322,569 

Saskatchewan. 

361,037 

131,395 

538,552 

218,958 

Yukon. 

4,647 

3,865 

2,851 

1,306 

Northwest Territories. 

6,507 


7,988 


R. C. Navy. 


485 

















































































The Growth of Population in Canada 


5 


Prescott, Ontario, not far from Cale¬ 
donia village. In 1891 it had moved 
west to the vicinity of Ottawa, where 
it remained in 1901. In 1911 the 
county of Victoria, Ontario, contained 
the center, and it is probably in Simcoe 
County, Ontario, at the present time. 

Urban vs Rural Increase 

There are numerous features that 
invite analysis in a record like the 
above. That of racial distribution 
and assimilation will, it is understood, 
be treated elsewhere in the present 
series of articles. Language is of 
kindred interest. There is space for 
reference in the present outline to only 
one such topic—selected for its in¬ 
cidence upon what is by many con¬ 
sidered the most important problem 
of the immediate future—^namely, the 
relative trend of urban and rural in¬ 
crease. 

Urban Increase 

Canada is predominantly an agri¬ 
cultural country, yet it has reached the 


point where its town dwellers all but 
equal the numbers upon the land. In¬ 
deed it has probably passed that 
stage, as the census reckons only fully 
incorporated villages and towns as 
“urban.” Yet only forty years ago 
the towns and cities of Canada ac¬ 
counted for but 14 per cent of the 
people, and at the beginning of the 
present century the percentage was 
only 37. The expansion of 1900-1910 
as already remarked, though based 
on the opening of the West to agricul¬ 
ture, was no less remarkable for the 
growth of the cities—^in fact the urban 
increase of the decade was more than 
double the rural (1,258,645 compared 
with 574,878), whilst the proportion 
of city population to the total moved 
up from 37 to 45. That after the ini¬ 
tial settlement of a new country there 
should follow a period of town de¬ 
velopment to meet its business needs 
is natural enough—such was the ex¬ 
perience in earlier Canadian history— 
but that urban growth should parallel 
and “overshoot” rural in a period like 


Population of Fifteen Laegest Cities of Canada, 1891-1921 


CiTfe, ViLLES ET 
Villages 


Provinces 


1921 


Montreal, c. 
Toronto, c. . 
Winnipeg, c. 
Vancouver, c 
Hamilton, c. 
Ottawa, c... 
Quebec, c.. . 
Calgary, c. . 
London, c, . . 
Edmonton, c 
Halifax, c... 
St. John, c. . 
Victoria, c. . 
Windsor, c. . 
Regina, c. . . 


Quebec. 

Ontario. 

Manitoba. . . 
Br. Columbia 

Ontario. 

Ontario. 

Quebec. 

Alberta. 

Ontario. 

Alberta. 

Nova Scotia. 
N. Brunswick 
Br. Columbia 

Ontario. 

Saskatchewan 


618,506 

521,893 

179,087 

117,217 

114,151 

107,843 

95,193 

63,305 

60,959 

58,821 

58,372 

47,166 

38,727 

38,591 

34,432 


Population 


1911 


490,504 

381,833 

136,035 

100,401 

81,969 

87,062 

78,710 

43,704 

46,300 

31,074 

46,619 

42,511 

31,660 

17,829 

30,213 


1901 


328,172 

209,892 

42,340 

27,010 

52,634 

59,928 

68,840 

4,392 

37,976 

4,176 

40,832 

40,711 

20,919 

12,153 

2,249 


1891 


219,616 

181,215 

25,639 

13,709 

48,959 

44,154 

63,090 

3,876 

31,977 


38,437 

39,179 

16,841 

10,322 




















































6 


The Annals of the American Academy 


that of the settlement of the West is 
significant of much in recent Canadian 
history. To enlarge upon this: On¬ 
tario and the three Maritime Provinces 
actually lost in rural population during 
the decade 1901-1911. The loss was 
in part a movement of farmers towards 
the new western lands, but it was also 
a trek downwards, and particularly 
to the larger cities. In 1901 only 12 
per cent of the Canadian population 
was in cities of over 50,000 people; 
in 1911 the percentage was 18, whilst 
the ten largest cities alone absorbed 
more than half of the entire urban gain 
of the decade. Not all of this accretion 
came from the land, for at least 150 
small towns and villages lost popula¬ 
tion. 

. Decline in Rural Sections 

The same tendencies have been at 
work in the decade just closed, though 
only Nova Scotia, Prince Edward 
Island and Quebec have declined in 
actual numbers of rural population. 
Nova Scotia’s total gain as a province 
is largely accounted for by Halifax, 
Sydney, and the Pictou section. In 
the older parts of Ontario a score of 
counties have declined, and so have 
the majority of the small towns and 


villages. One half of the entire growth 
of the province is in Toronto and the 
surrounding district, and most of the 
remainder in Hamilton, the towns ad¬ 
jacent to Niagara power, the Windsor 
group of cities in the West and Ottawa 
in the East. Montreal, Three Rivers 
and Sherbrooke form the counterpart 
for Quebec, with some rural growth 
in Chicoutimi-Saguenay and Pontiac 
corresponding to similar expansion in 
New Ontario. In the West, Manitoba 
is depleting her small towns to feed 
Winnipeg and St. Boniface, which 
two account for one third of the pro¬ 
vincial increase, though there has been 
about an equal increase upon the land. 
Saskatchewan and Alberta similarly 
are building up their cities, but are also 
increasing their rural population, 
though somewhat less rapidly from a 
relative standpoint. In British Colum¬ 
bia, Vancouver and Victoria account 
for 30,000 increase of a total of 132,000, 
but there has been growth upon Van¬ 
couver Island. For those who wish 
to pursue the subject further, tables 
are added showing the rural and urban 
populations of the several provinces 
over the past forty years and the 
growth of the fifteen largest Canadian 
cities during the same period. 


The French Canadians in the Province of Quebec 

By G. E. Marquis 
Provincial Statistician, Quebec 
Translated by Louis Allen, Ph.D., University College, Toronto 


Origins 

HE ancestors of the French Ca¬ 
nadians came from the northwest 
of France, chiefly from Normandy, 
Perche, Beauce, Maine, Anjou, Tou- 
raine, Poitou, Aunis, Angoumois, 
Saintonge, and part of Gascony. 
Nineteen twentieths of this popula¬ 
tion were derived from the above-men¬ 
tioned provinces, and not from Brit¬ 
tany, as has often been stated. New 
France, during her infancy, required 
tillers of the soil, and Brittany pro¬ 
duced, properly speaking, only fisher¬ 
men. These tillers of the soil could 
come only from the provinces having 
sea-port eonnections with Quebec. It 
was vessels sailing from the ports of 
Dieppe and Honfleur, from the mouth 
of the Loire, from Rochefort and La 
Roehelle, that brought us these tillers 
of the soil, each one of whom could also 
ply a trade, such as joiner, cabinet¬ 
maker, wheelwright, miller, black¬ 
smith, etc. Let it be noted further 
that no prisoners, civil or criminal, 
were sent out. 

The young women sent to the colony, 
in the time of Colbert, were at first 
selected in the orphanages of Paris, 
and later, in the diocese of Rouen. 
It was Madame Bourbon, wife of the 
former attorney general, who devoted 
herself to this work. All our historians 
have victoriously refuted certain sean- 
dalous stories concerning these young 
women, and due to the imagination 
of Baron Lahontan. So pure and 
so free from all taint are our origins 
that we have not the least hesitation 
in indieating the sources where they 


may be studied at first hand and in 
all their intimate detail. By the aid 
of the archives of the parishes of 
Quebec and Montreal, and of the 
records of the notaries, it is possible 
to trace the origin, the genealogy and 
the state of fortune of each one of 
the immigrants (men or women) com¬ 
ing to Canada during the course of the 
seventeenth century. Benjamin Suite 
affirms that from 1634 to 1759 there 
came from France not more than 4,000 
individuals. Before that date, 1634, 
scarcely 300 French immigrants had 
come to Canada. The Abbe S. Lortie 
claims that at most 5,800 French im¬ 
migrants, arriving in Canada from 
1608 to 1760, were the parent stock 
of the French race in America. 

These 5,800 sons and daughters 
of France have attained and spread 
over all of North America, in the space 
of three centuries, the almost miracu¬ 
lous figure of 3,500,000 souls, a popula¬ 
tion six hundred times greater than 
the number of the original colonists. 

The French Regime 

The companies entrusted by the 
Kings of France with the settlement 
of Canada, in return for which they 
received certain privileges, which were 
granted to them during the first half 
century of this period—^that is from 
1612 until 1663 (Companies of Rouan, 
Montmorency and of the One Hundred 
Associates)—brought out few colonists, 
for the population at the time of the 
census of 1665 was only 3,215. The 
seigneurs contributed notably to the 
establishment of colonists on the banks 
of the St. Lawrence, on the lie d'Or- 



7 


8 


The Annals of the American Academy 


leans, etc. In 1663 a viceregal govern¬ 
ment was established at Quebec. The 
following year, however, the King 
of France handed over all the French 
possessions in the American hemisphere 
to the Company of the West Indies, 
a company that was in its turn to be 
suppressed by Frontenac upon his 
arrival in 1672. 

It would be too long an undertaking 
to follow here all the developments of 
the French colony during the course 
of the period extending from 1608 to 
1760. Let us simply recall that the 
beginnings were full of hardship, and 
that our ancestors had to fight against 
the Iroquois Indians from 1608 to 1700. 
As it was difficult for the colonists 
to devote themselves to the cultivation 
of the soil because of the constant 
danger of being attacked by the Iro¬ 
quois, the progress of the colony was 
slow, especially during the seventeenth 
century. 

Entrance of the English 

But the conflict with the Indians 
was not yet entirely settled when a 
new enemy pounced down upon New 
France and attempted to seize it for 
England. The unsuccessful attack on 
Quebec made by Admiral Phipps in 
1690, and the later attempt of Admiral 
Walker in 1711, were the prelude to 
the new struggle. At all points at 
once hostilities began between the 
Canadians and the English, and the 
French posts scattered over the whole 
American continent, from Hudson 
Bay to Louisiana, and from the Great 
Lakes to the Atlantic, soon fell one 
after another into the hands of the 
English. 

By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, 
which ended the war between France 
and England, Louis XIV was forced 
to cede to his rival a part of his pos¬ 
sessions in America, including Acadia, 
Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and the 


country of the Iroquois. Later the 
French regained possession of Acadia, 
only to be again dispossessed of it 
in 1745, and from this time the 
English were determined to seize all the 
French possessions in America. The 
deportation of the Acadians in 1755, 
under the pretext of disloyalty to 
the British Crown, is a dark page in 
English annals, in no wise justified 
by the neutral attitude of this peasant 
people. But a part of the Acadians 
returned, and today they number 
nearly 200,000 in the Maritime Prov’^- 
inces, and at least 100,000 in the 
United States, or scattered over the 
eastern part of the province of Quebec. 

In 1760 France abandoned the 
American colony to its fate, and the 
English, having the advantage of 
numbers, attacked New France from 
three sides at once; the Great Lakes, 
the river Richelieu, and the St. Law¬ 
rence. The city of Quebec was the 
last French possession to resist. Wolfe 
and Montcalm, the generals command¬ 
ing the English and French armies, 
were both killed in the same battle 
on the Plains of Abraham. This was 
in the autumn of 1759. The defeated 
French army fell back on Montreal. 
The following spring, wishing to re¬ 
trieve his loss, Levis marched to be¬ 
siege Quebec and succeeded in putting 
the English to flight in the battle of 
Ste. Foy. But upon the arrival of 
English reinforcements Levis was 
obliged to withdraw and soon after the 
Capitulation was signed by the Marquis 
de Vaudreuil at Montreal. The fleur- 
delise sailed back over the sea, but 
almost the entire French population 
remained in the country, with its 
clergy, its nobility, its seigneurs, ruined 
but not discouraged. 

After the Conquest —(1760) 

It has often been affirmed that only 
the peasant class remained in the 


The French Canadians in the Province of Quebec 


9 


country after the Cession in 1760, and 
that the educated class abandoned it 
to its fate. Nothing is farther from 
the truth, as we have just shown, and 
those who have doubts in the matter, 
if they wish to be convinced, have only 
to run through the work on this sub¬ 
ject by Judge Baby, VExode des classes 
dirigeantes a la cession du Canada 
(The Exodus of the Ruling Classes 
at the Time of the Cession of Canada), 
as well as VHistoire des Ursulines^ 
published in 1833, and also VHistoire 
des grandes families du Canada, by the 
Abbe Daniel, a priest of the Order of 
St. Sulpice. 

Approximately 60,000 Canadians 
were at that time grouped around 
Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, 
including also the settlers scattered 
along the banks of the St. Lawrence 
and its numerous tributaries. The 
first English Governor of Quebec, 
Murray, in a report concerning the 
government of Quebec in 1762, wrote 
of the inhabitants of the colony in the 
following terms: 

They belong to a strong and vigorous 
race; they are virtuous in their morals and 
temperate in their manner of life. 

If they are convinced that they have 
no need to fear deportation, and that 
they will enjoy the free exercise of their 
religion, 

they will become good and faithful sub¬ 
jects of His Majesty, and the country that 
they inhabit will be before long a rich and 
very useful colony of Great Britain. 

Murray’s successor. Lord Dorchester 
likewise, makes the following statement: 

The Canadian stock, whose roots are 
already so vigorously prolific, will end 
by peopling this country to such a degree 
that any new element transplanted into 
Canada would find itseh entirely submerged 
and disappear, except in the cities of Quebec 
and Montreal. 


Here we have testimony above all 
suspicion, and if, in the course of later 
years, the Canadians are obliged to 
struggle against a handful of bureau¬ 
crats who wish to reduce them to 
servitude and to deprive them of the 
rights guaranteed by the Capitulation 
of Montreal, rights ratified three years 
later by the Treaty of Paris, it must 
not be believed that it is from a spirit 
of insubordination that our compatriots 
resist, seeing that these struggles have 
obtained for Canada the parliamentary 
regime that we enjoy today, and since 
in each controversy, when their rights 
w^ere infringed upon, it was sufficient 
for them to carry their complaints to 
the foot of the throne to obtain 
justice. Ruined, but not discouraged, 
as we have already said, the Canadians, 
on the morrow of the Conquest, re¬ 
sumed their cultivation of the soil and, 
grouped in parishes under the wise 
and enlightened guidance of their 
cures, they rapidly w^axed in numbers, 
if not in wealth. 

The demographic statistics, the com¬ 
pilation of which has always been en¬ 
trusted to the clergy of the province, 
non-Catholic as well as Catholic, re¬ 
veal a very high birth-rate among the 
French Canadians, although this birth¬ 
rate has appreciably diminished since 
the beginning of the present century. 
The following are a few examples: 
from 1660 to 1670 this birth-rate was 
63.0 per 1,000; from 1700 to 1710, 

56.8 per 1,000; from 1760 to 1770, 

63.3 per 1,000; from 1830 to 1840, 

60.1 per 1,000; from 1870 to 1880, 

47.3 per 1,000; in 1900 it had fallen to 

34.4 per 1,000; finally, in 1920, the 
birth-rate was 33.3 per 1,000. The 
coming into the country, after the 
cession, of new racial elements has 
largely contributed towards the lower¬ 
ing of the birth-rate, as the newcomers 
are less prolific than the settlers of 
French origin. 


10 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Harmony 

The brevity of this sketch does not 
permit us to emphasize many interest¬ 
ing facts in connection with the English 
domination, therefore we pass without 
further delay to the years that more 
directly concern us. Since Confedera¬ 
tion in 1867 the greatest harmony has 
reigned in the province of Quebec, 
and everywhere a friendly competition 
has been maintained among the various 
elements of our population. The habit¬ 
ant of Quebec still continues to wrest 
the land from the wilderness, and 
to cultivate it. A certain number of 
our compatriots have emigrated to 
the United States, especially following 
the War of Secession (1866)—half a 
million perhaps, and probably con¬ 
stitute today a scattered population 
of nearly 1,000,000 individuals. This 
exodus ceased about forty years ago, 
and a considerable number of our 
compatriots are returning to their 
native land. During the last twenty 
years a great many new districts have 
been opened up to colonization and 
have been cleared; they are today 
intersected by railways, which, by 
promoting commerce and industry, 
bring prosperity. 

Growth and Expansion 

Penetrating into the interior, the 
railways have brought about groups 
of population, and today one sees 
industrial centers developing and fur¬ 
nishing employment for the surplus 
population of the longer settled regions, 
where the land has all been cleared. 
The urban population slightly sur¬ 
passes the rural population: out of 
100 inhabitants of the province there 
are 52.8 in the cities and 48.2 on the 
land, according to the municipal re¬ 
ports. But it should be added, to 


be exact, that the city of Montreal 
alone, out of an urban population of 
1,340,561 for the province, has no less 
than 618,506 inhabitants, or nearly 
50 per cent of the total. The growth 
of the population in the province is 
due to the excess of births over deaths, 
and by no means to immigration; prac¬ 
tically all attempts at colonization by 
European immigrants have failed; 
only the Canadians have the courage 
and the endurance required for clearing 
a farm in the w^oods and converting 
it after a few years of hard labor into 
fine cultivated land. 

During the year 1921 there were 
registered in the province 84,749 
births and 33,433 deaths, giving a 
natural increase of 55,316 inhabitants. 
The birth-rate for the same year was 
37.57 per 1,000, the death-rate 14.15 
per 1,000, giving an annual increase 
of 23.42 per 1,000. The infantile 
death-rate (0 to one year) was in 1921, 
113 per 1,000 children born alive. 
These figures explain the rapid growth 
of the French Canadian population. 
Families of 10, 12, and 15 children 
are still not uncommon among our 
people, and formerly w^ere quite gen¬ 
eral. In 1890 the Mercier Govern¬ 
ment had a law passed by the legis¬ 
lature, providing that every father 
of a family having 12 living children 
should receive from the Government 
a free grant of 100 acres. In 1904 
a report on the results of this pro¬ 
vision published the names of 3,395 
families which, within a period of 13 
years, had taken advantage of this 
land-grant; in 1906 a supplementary 
report added 2,018 other names to 
the list of beneficiaries, making a 
total of 5,413 families having at least 
12 children. 

This law was repealed in 1905 because 
all the public lands were threatening to 
fall into the hands of these enterprizing 
fathers, humorously, 


The French Canadians in the Province of Quebec 


11 


so declared recently the present prime 
minister of the province, the Honorable 
M. L.-A. Taschereau. 

Educational Facilities 

For the benefit of those who might 
be tempted to believe that education 
is neglected in Quebec, and that we 
are more concerned with having large 
families than with properly rearing 
and educating them, we can state 
that between the ages of seven and 
fourteen nearly all children attend 
school. The province has no fewer 
than 7,733 schools, taught by a staff 
of 19,704 teachers, men and women, 
and laymen as well as members of 
the religious orders. In the religious 
orders 8,591 are classed as teaching 
for a salary varying from $100 to 
$250 per year, and this accounts 
for the fact that the average cost 
of education is so low in the prov¬ 
ince, namely $40.35 per head, while 
it would cost at least double that 
amount if the teachers of the religious 
orders were paid as are the laymen. 
Quebec has four universities, attended 
by 5,428 students; 21 classical colleges, 
in which are enrolled 9,502 pupils; 
in short our schools are attended by 
548,251 pupils, out of a total of 664,509 
of school age. The average attend¬ 
ance, according to the enrollment, is 
77.41 per cent, while for the whole of 
Canada it is 67.83 per cent. Ten 
years ago $6,210,000 were expended 
for public instruction in the province; 
today the amount expended is $22,- 
123,000 by the government and the 
municipahties. 

Agriculture and Industry 

From the agricultural and industrial 
viewpoint we are making equally 
rapid progress, as the following figures 
show: In 1911, in the province of 
Quebec, the crops were valued at 
$76,325,000; in 1920 they had attained 


the value of $330,217,000. During the 
same period the value of the domestic 
animals rose from $94,926,000 to 
$206,814,000; that of our dairy prod¬ 
ucts, butter and cheese, from $15,650,- 
000 to $37,000,000. In 1910 our 
factories, 6,584 in number, had an 
invested capital of $326,946,925 and a 
production of $350,901,656, while in 
1919, according to the latest figures 
published, the factories numbered 11,- 
061, with an invested capital of 
$936,712,125 and a production of 
$988,433,364. This gives some idea of 
the progress made in a decade, and 
bears witness to the activity of the 
French Canadians, who at the same 
time remain attached to their tradi¬ 
tions and to an ideal, which is in no 
way at variance with the aspirations of 
those by whose side they are advancing 
in the province, as in the Dominion. 

Population 

For 1921, the population of the 
province of Quebec was 2,361,199, 
according to Federal Census. When 
Canada was ceded to England in 
1760 we were about 60,000 in num¬ 
ber. At that time the population of 
France was 20,000,000. The latter 
has not yet doubled, while the in¬ 
habitants of Quebec have multiplied 
more than forty times in Canada 
alone. Presuming that the population 
of Quebec will be doubled every thirty 
years, we shall have nearly 25,000,000 
at the beginning of the twenty-first 
century, 

A prominent English-speaking Ca¬ 
nadian, writing in the London Tablet 
for January 22, makes the following 
statements: 

As a result of its fecundity, the French- 
Canadian population has grown from 75,- 
000 at the Conquest in 1760 to an estimated 
number of 3,400,000 at the present day, 
distributed as follows: In the province of 
Quebec, 1,958,000; in the other provinces 


n 


The Annals of the American Academy 


of Canada, 442,000; and in the United 
States, 1,000,000. These figures, it is 
true, include all persons of French origin, 
but subsequent immigration to Canada has 
been negligible. From the United States 
figures, however, a substantial deduction 
should no doubt be made for persons who 
are not of Canadian origin. Further, in 
the last available returns the decennial 
rate of increase of population in Quebec 
is given as 21.45 as against 15.59 in On¬ 
tario. 

The French Canadians are solidly Catho¬ 
lic, despite the large sums that Protestants 
have for many years been spending an¬ 
nually for the “evangelization of Quebec.” 
The population of the province is 80.5 
French-speaking and 86.2 Catholic. There 
are no atheists among them, as there are 
in France. 

It has been the fashion among Protes¬ 
tants to refer to Quebec as the “backward 
province,” but it is beginning to dawn on 
even the bigots that it is, in most respects, 
the foremost and best-governed province 
in the Dominion. Its credit is certainly 
better than that of any other province, since 
its bonds sell at a higher figure than those 
of any of the others, even higher than those 
of the Dominion itself. 

Canadians of French origin do not look 
on themselves as French, nor do they ever 
apply to themselves the designation 
“French Canadian” by which they are 
universally known among English-speaking 
people. To themselves they are simply 
“Canadians.” 

The French Canadian, it is true, is 
rooted to the soil by three centuries 
of history. He still loves P'rance, his 
former mother country, but France is 


not his old country homey and he is 
never heard to speak of returning 
there. He was the first pioneer on 
American soil and he will be its last 
defender against any invader. 

Language 

The language spoken among the 
educated classes is the same as that 
heard in France in the same milieux. 
As for our peasants, we grant that in 
their speech they make use of archa¬ 
isms and of expressions sometimes 
obsolete; but gather together French 
Canadians from ten different localities, 
not only from Canada but also from 
the United States, and all will under¬ 
stand one another at once, because 
there is a uniformity of language 
among them—with the exception of 
a certain number who have lived in 
the United States and whose language 
is contaminated with anglicisms. The 
same cannot be said for the French 
peasant, since nearly 20 per cent of the 
conscripts reporting for military service 
speak only a patois and do not under¬ 
stand a word of French; and since, 
moreover, the French peasants living in 
two neighboring departements are often 
unable to understand one another be¬ 
cause of the difference of dialect. 

In the sixty rural counties and the 
one hundred and nine cities and towns 
of the province of Quebec all our 
people understand one another, and are 
understood by the French, provided 
the latter speak—French. 


The French Canadians Outside of Quebec 

By The Hon. Senator N. A. Belcouet, LL.D., K.C., P.C. 

The Senate, Ottawa 


T he descendants of the 60,000 
French peasants and artisans 
grouped here and there along the banks 
of the River St. Lawrence, who were 
ceded by France to Great Britain 
by the Treaty of Paris (1763), now 
number over 4,000,000. There are 
2,000,000 in the province of Quebec, 
1,750,000 in the United States of 
America and 650,000 scattered in the 
other provinces of the Dominion. 

This marvelous growth, accom¬ 
plished through many trials and vicis¬ 
situdes, notwithstanding grave and 
almost permanent handicaps, even de¬ 
portation in the case of the Acadians, 
without any assistance material or 
moral from the outside, is due to the 
natural qualities and aptitudes and, 
more especially, the fecundity of the 
race and its persistent observance of 
the divine injunction to grow and 
multiply. 

Romance of the Canadian Pioneers 

Canada’s pioneers were almost to 
a man crusaders of civilization and 
Christianism. Their vision, ambition 
and zeal induced them to take in the 
whole of the North American continent 
as the field of their endeavors and 
activities. 

French Canadians traversed the 
interior of this Northern Hemisphere, 
in almost every direction, when it was 
nothing but an immense solitude and 
in all its wild and primitive beauty. 

Jacques Cartier, Champlain, de Mai- 
sonneuve, Joliet, La Salle, Talon, 
Frontenac, de la Verendrye, de Laval, 
and their coadjutors and successors 
aimed to build and maintain an em¬ 


pire, French and Catholic, extending 
from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of 
Mexico. The record of bravery, au¬ 
dacity and endurance, sublime abnega¬ 
tion and supreme devotion, as well as 
the exploits of the French, both lay 
and clerical, in America, is as entranc¬ 
ing, as engrossing and as inspiring as 
the most romantic epic of any age or 
clime. 

No Greek, Roman, French or Eng¬ 
lish fiction contains anything more 
heroic than the actual doings of these 
pioneers and missionaries. 

Their explorations, their settlements 
and missions embraced the great 
waterways and lakes, outside of the 
territory occupied by the original 
thirteen American colonies. One needs 
only to look at the map of North 
America of the middle of the 18th 
Century to apprehend at a glance the 
magnitude of the work then already 
accomplished by these empire builders. 
Only the want of vision, the improvi¬ 
dence, indifference and dissoluteness 
of Louis XIV and Louis XV and their 
Courts arrested first and finally put an 
end to the ambitious hopes and well- 
laid plans of the sons of France to 
insure for her the predominant r6le on 
the North American continent. 

If time permitted it could be con¬ 
clusively shown that the most of the 
great industries which have permitted 
Canada’s development had their be¬ 
ginning under the French regime—so 
much so that the great Intendant 
Talon could truthfully say, as he did, 
that New France had become self- 
supporting through its own industrial 
efforts. 


13 


14 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Wide Extent of French 
Settlements 

When the battle of the Plains of 
Abraham was fought the pioneers of 
New France had erected, outside of 
what is now the province of Quebec, 
many important and strategically 
chosen settlements, such as Oswego, 
Frontenac (now Kingston), Cataracui, 
St. Joseph, Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit, 
New Orleans, Mobile, Chicago, Bour- 
bonnais. Forts Duquesne, Saint Fred¬ 
eric, St. Charles, St. Pierre, Maurepas, 
Rouge, La Reine, in Manitoba and the 
Northwest, and others in Illinois, 
Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Wis¬ 
consin, Ohio, Dakota, Colorado, Ari¬ 
zona, New Mexico, Oregon, Louisiana, 
California, in New York and the New 
England States. These settlements 
have now become great and prosperous 
cities and towns and most of their 
original names have survived. The 
French were the first colonists in every 
one of the nine provinces that now 
form the Canadian Confederation. 

After the Fall of Quebec 

After the fall of Quebec the French 
colonists decided that they must live, 
endure and multiply. They had tradi¬ 
tions, a language, a culture and a faith 
which they had brought to and im¬ 
planted in the New World, which they 
would not forsake, of which they con¬ 
stituted themselves the guardians. 
Their attachment to Canadian soil was 
the main reason why they remained, in 
Canada and accepted the new regime, 
regretfully at first no doubt, but none 
the less loyally. Relieved of the 
exactions of the last period of French 
dominion, impoverished and harassed 
by constant wars, craving for peace, 
they quietly and contentedly settled 
down to the tilling of their farms; and 
they prospered and multiplied. 

With these descendants of a race of 


discoverers and explorers, the spirit of 
adventure, the desire to see and exploit 
new territory persisted, and not more 
than fifty years after the Conquest they 
renewed their quest for new fields and 
founded new settlements. Today there 
is no province of Canada and no state 
of the American Republic where they 
are not to be found, as the Oflficial 
Census and other records show. 

It is to be noted at once that the last 
official figures at our disposal are those 
of the Census of 1911; those of 1921 
not having yet been published. 

The following table, based on the 
Census returns of 1911, with a con¬ 
servative estimate of the increase 
during the last twelve years, shows the 
present French population of North 
America and where it is located: 


Province of Quebec. 2,000,000 

United States. 1,750,000 

Ontario. 300,000 

New Brunswick. 124,000 

Nova Scotia. 55,000 

Prince Edward Island. 12,000 

Saskatchewan. 40,000 

Manitoba. 35,000 

Alberta. 28,000 

British Columbia. 12,000 

Yukon and Territories. 2,000 


Leaving aside the 2,000,000 French 
Canadians residing in the province 
of Quebec and the 1,750,000 in the 
United States, the remainder, about 
650,000, are located in small or large 
groups in the other provinces of Con¬ 
federation, as indicated in the fore¬ 
going table. The increase is due to 
nativity, unaided by outside accretion, 
as emigration from France and Bel¬ 
gium to Canada practically ceased with 
the Conquest. 

It is not proposed to deal here with 
the largest group of French-speaking 
Canadians forming four-fifths of the 
population of the province of Quebec, 
but only of the smaller groups outside 
that province. 













The Feench Canadians Outside of Quebec 


15 


Exodus to the United States 

In 1834 began the exodus of many 
Canadians to the United States, which 
quickly increased in volume, which 
about 1875 had assumed alarming 
proportions and which, whilst it at 
times slowed down, has never really 
ceased; it has added 1,750,000 of 
French and probably 1,000,000 of 
English-speaking Canadians to the 
population of the United States. 

Though by far the greatest number 
of these newcomers from Quebec set¬ 
tled in the northeastern states, and 
along the Atlantic coast, some of them 
found a home in other parts of the 
American Union. In 1900, about 75 
per cent are to be found along the 
Atlantic, 20 per cent in the North 
central regions, 3 per cent in the West, 
2 per cent in the South. The propor¬ 
tion in the West is probably now at 
least 10 per cent. About 40 per cent 
then lived in the cities and the other 
60 per cent on farms. The proportion 
in the cities has since considerably in¬ 
creased, with the result that it is now 
50 per cent on the farms and 50 per 
cent in the cities. The main cause of 
so many departing from their native 
soil arose out of the industrial and 
financial crisis which prevailed under 
the union of Ontario and Quebec, as 
well as the hope or expectation enter¬ 
tained by them of receiving good wages 
in the factories and other industries of 
the eastern states. Many of the 
French Canadians hoped, in fact, to 
earn enough to liberate their properties 
from indebtedness, and to resume some 
day the tilling of their Canadian farms. 
Besides, the traditional love of ad¬ 
venture had not wholly died out. 

Owing to the indifference or want of 
action on the part of Canada’s govern¬ 
mental authorities to arrest the exodus, 
and later to take steps to bring back 
those who had left, and in part to the 


liberality and good treatment extended 
by state and other authorities, as well 
as by the people generally, to the new¬ 
comers, the latter accommodated them¬ 
selves readily to their changed environ¬ 
ment and most of them gave up all 
idea of trekking back north. We know 
that very few, if any, of the English- 
speaking emigrants from Canada to the 
United States had upon leaving any 
such intention and the records do not 
show that any considerable number of 
these have permanently returned. 

The sporadic and unsupported efforts 
made to repatriate them were generally 
fruitless. Hence the deplorable fact 
for Canada that today there are about 
1,750,000 Canadians of French speech 
and not less than 1,000,000 of English- 
speaking Canadians who have been 
lost to Canadian citizenship. Whilst 
there is reason to hope that a not un¬ 
important number of French Cana¬ 
dians may be induced to return, ap¬ 
parently no such hope can be seriously 
entertained with regard to the other 
Canadians who have left us. 

Part Return to Canada* 

During the last few years, however, 
a considerable number of French 
Canadians returning from the United 
States, as well as a large number be¬ 
longing to the older parts of Quebec, 
have established themselves in the 
western provinces and New Ontario 
and more particularly along the rich 
clay belt traversed by the Canadian 
National Transcontinental Railway. 

They are engaged in the task of 
clearing vast areas of excellent agri¬ 
cultural land, a task for which they are 
eminently qualified, better prepared 
than almost all other present or future 
citizens of Canada, a task which is 
bound to be profitable to themselves 
and of great benefit to the nation at 
large. They have assumed, uncon¬ 
sciously no doubt, the work of bridging 


16 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the chasm between the East and the 
West and filling up the gap caused by 
1,200 miles of heretofore supposed 
swamp and desert. 

These French settlements for many 
hundreds of miles upon the clay belt of 
Ontario will in time justify the building 
of the Government Transcontinental 
Railway. 

Where Located and How Estab¬ 
lished IN THE States 

The 1,750,000 French Canadians 
living in the United States are located 
in groups greatly varying in number. 
They founded Chicago, St. Louis, St. 
Paul, Dubuque, Milwaukee, Detroit, 
etc. They are located mainly in the 
states of Vermont, New Hampshire, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, New York, Michi¬ 
gan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
Montana, Washington, California, 
etc. 

In the cities of Woonsocket, Provi¬ 
dence, Fall River, New Bedford, 
Worcester, Biddeford, Manchester, 
Lewiston, Haverhill, Lowell, Lawrence, 
Southbridge, Springfield, Holyoke, etc., 
they are in some instances the pre¬ 
dominant element, a majority in cer¬ 
tain others and in the rest a consider¬ 
able proportion of the total popula¬ 
tion. 

Employed on arrival almost ex¬ 
clusively in the cotton, shoe and other 
factories, a considerable number, how¬ 
ever, entered into the commercial, in¬ 
dustrial and professional life of their 
adopted country, first as mere em¬ 
ployees, and as soon as they could 
secure the initial capital, on their own 
account, with the result that they 
have acquired and now control an im¬ 
portant part of the business and pro¬ 
fessional life of these states. Many 
hold prominent posts. They enjoy 
generally the respect and esteem of 
their neighbors, most of them are 


prosperous and not a few have become 
wealthy. 

In 1900 there were 84 per cent of 
them nationalized and no doubt today 
nearly all of them are. 

Natural Adaptability and Growth 

In order to preserve and perpetuate 
their racial characteristics, traditions 
and religious faith, they promptly set 
themselves to the work of erecting 
churches, schools, convents, hospitals, 
benevolent and literary institutions or 
societies; they founded and generously 
supported newspapers published in 
their maternal tongue; they readily 
took the oath of allegiance to the Re¬ 
public and have always manifested a 
deep interest in all matters affecting 
the well-being of their new country, 
their locality and their home; they 
have become thoroughly loyal and 
good American citizens, an integral, 
important and progressive part of the 
Great Republic. 

With that adaptability conspicu¬ 
ously early and many times displayed 
by their ancestors, after the substitu¬ 
tion of the British for the French re¬ 
gime and forms of government, these 
new American citizens proceeded to 
secure for themselves the use and en¬ 
joyment of the benefits to be derived 
from the free and democratic laws and 
institutions governing them in their 
new homes. They at once entered 
freely and with zest into the public life 
of their respective community, state, 
city, town or village, seeking and ob¬ 
taining an always increasing represen¬ 
tation in the municipal council, in the 
state legislature, in Congress, and in 
several instances, at the very top of 
the state. The cities and towns which 
they have created, the parts which 
they have developed, as well as their 
general good standing, are convincing 
evidence of their adaptability, intel¬ 
ligence, courage and determination to 


17 


The French Canadians Outside of Quebec 


secure for themselves the advantages 
and influence which they enjoy under 
the aegis of the Star Spangled Banner. 
All this, with their natural fecundity 
and willingness to multiply, undoubt¬ 
edly afford ample promise of their 
rapid and substantial advancement. 

Migration to Ontario 

Early in the 19th Century the mi¬ 
gration from the province of Quebec, 
then known as Lower Canada, into 
Upper Canada, commenced and was 
at first directed to the county of 
Glengarry. But it was not until 1830 
that this migration became more ex¬ 
tensive in Ontario and commenced to 
flow into Manitoba and the western 
provinces, where many French groups 
are made up almost exclusively of the 
sons, grandsons and great-grandsons 
of the French migrants of 1830. Ex¬ 
ception, however, must be made of 
about 4,000, whose settlement in the 
western part of Ontario, mainly in the 
counties of Essex and Kent, dates back 
to the days of the early French ex¬ 
plorers and fur traders, just about the 
time the French founded Lamothe- 
Cadillac, now the great city of Detroit. 
This group was soon considerably in¬ 
creased by newcomers from Quebec, 
and in 1867 its population numbered 
13,400 souls and now aggregates at 
least 33,000. 

At the time of the Union of Upper 
and Lower Canada (1841) the French 
Canadians in Upper Canada numbered 
about 14,000 out of a total population 
of 455,688; had increased to about 
33,000 in 1861; 75,000 in 1871; 102,000 
in 1881; 202,000 in 1911. In 1923 it 
must be nearly 300,000. The 14,000 
of 1841 have in 60 years become 
300,000, thus constituting today more 
than one-tenth of the total Ontario 
population. There is not a county in 
Ontario where some of them have not 
permanently located. 

9 


The following table shows in what 
counties their largest groups were to 
be found in 1911, the figures for 1921 
not being available: 

Carleton, including the city of 


Ottawa. 26,307 

Nipissing. 26,277 

Russell. 22,475 

Prescott. 20,124 

North Essex. 14,078 

Algoma East. 11,571 

Glengarry. 8,710 

Essex South. 7,655 

Simcoe East. 6,357 

Kent West. 4,917 

Thunder Bay and Rainy Bay. . . . 4,731 

Renfrew South. 3,149 

Renfrew North. 2,958 

Algoma West.. 2,776 

Hastings East. 2,144 

Parry Sound. 2,188 


Courage and Energy Spur towards 
Development 

As previously pointed out, the 
French Canadians of Ontario, with the 
exception of the then small settlement 
in the counties of Essex and Kent and 
the few settlers from France and 
Belgium came from the province of 
Quebec. Though the migration to 
Ontario began early in the 19 th 
Century, they numbered only 14,000 
at the date (1841) of the Union of 
Upper and Lower Canada. Mainly 
drawn from the agricultural class, 
they took up lands along the banks of 
the Ottawa River, beginning with the 
counties of Prescott and Russell. Be¬ 
cause the best farming lands, those 
situated on the plateaux, had then 
practically all been taken up, the only 
ones which they could acquire were 
the low and swampy lands. The 
courage shown and the energy and 
labor expended by them in developing 
and rendering this soil very productive 
have been frequently lauded. Their 
number in Prescott was, in 1911, 
20,124 out of a total population of 

















18 


The Annals of the American Academy 


26,968; in Russell 22,475 out of a total 
of 39,434; many parts in both counties 
being in appearance and in fact as 
typically French as most of those of 
the province whence they came origi¬ 
nally. Notwithstanding the handi¬ 
caps already referred to and others 
which need not be mentioned, their 
progress and prosperity will compare 
favorably with that of their neighbors 
of different races. 

Following the course of the Ottawa 
River and reaching the Capital we find 
that in 1911 the French Canadians 
formed one-third of the population, 22,- 
210 out of 73,193. The Census figures 
of 1921 will show that they have there 
largely increased since and in greater 
ratio than the rest of the population. 
Proceeding further to the counties of 
North and South Renfrew they com¬ 
posed in 1911 more than one-third of 
the total thereof; this proportion is 
considerably increased as we reach 
Mattawa and its neighborhood. At 
this point the line of settlement di¬ 
vides itself into two distinct lines, 
one extending towards Temiscamingue, 
where settlement conditions are found 
very favorable for both agricultural 
and mining purposes. The other line 
follows the shores of Lake Nipissing 
pushing directly to the west and taking 
in the prosperous and quickly develop¬ 
ing centers of Sturgeon Falls, Sudbury, 
Blind River, Sault Ste. Marie, North 
Bay and the surrounding country. 
It then moves to the south along 
Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, where 
also important and growing French 
establishments are to be found. 

Towards the south on the St. 
Lawrence River and reaching the 
county of Glengarry one comes upon 
the scene of the earliest migration from 
Quebec. In 1911 the French num¬ 
bered 8,710 out of 21,259 and now 
constitute very probably one half of 
the whole. 


Of special interest are the French 
establishments in the counties of 
Essex and Kent, situate at the southern 
extremity of Ontario, originally begun 
in the early days of French exploration 
and fur trading. Because of the 
clemency of the climate, and the great 
fertility of the soil, these settlements 
quickly developed and today have be¬ 
come very prosperous. Outside of the 
city of Windsor and smaller towns, 
most of the inhabitants are engaged in 
cultivating the soil with intense and 
most modern methods and harvesting 
large quantities, and of the best 
quality, of farm products, fruit, to¬ 
bacco, etc. They have for a long time 
exploited and now control the profit¬ 
able fishing grounds afforded by the 
waters of Lakes Erie and St. Clair and 
the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. 

Besides there are many growing 
French establishments in the counties 
of Simcoe, Welland, Hastings, Thunder 
Bay, Rainy River, Parry Sound, 
Muskoka, Stormont and others. 

General High Standing 

^Vhilst the general social and eco¬ 
nomic conditions of the French Cana¬ 
dians throughout Ontario are and must 
remain for a time inferior to those 
which prevail as a rule in the province 
of Quebec, because nearly all of them 
belong to the pioneer class, because 
they were late in coming into the 
province after the best lands had been 
taken, and the control of industry 
and business acquired by others, and 
especially because of the usual want 
of capital of the pioneer, it must be 
and it is generally conceded that 
they have accomplished a great deal. 
They are progressing satisfactorily, 
have demonstrated their superiority 
as colonizers, and are giving promise of 
materially aiding the development and 
prosperity of Ontario. They have 
carried with them and generally put 


The French Canadians Outside of Quebec 


19 


into practice their innate disposition 
to mind their own business, live in 
peace and harmony with their neigh¬ 
bors, and evenly pursue the tenor of 
their way. 

In the city of Ottawa, where they 
constitute one-third of the population, 
they hold an important position in 
business, in the civil service and in the 
intellectual and artistic domain. 

Evidences of Early National 
Traits 

Perhaps the most interesting and 
significant phase of the migration from 
Quebec into Ontario and the repatria¬ 
tion of the French from the New Eng¬ 
land States, is the settlement already 
alluded to, of many French Canadians 
in New as well as Northern Ontario, 
especially upon the great clay belt of 
the province which is traversed by the 
Canadian National Transcontinental 
Railway. Begun but a few years ago 
and notwithstanding three most dev¬ 
astating conflagrations and conse¬ 
quent incalculable loss, the develop¬ 
ment of the northern part and the new 
part of Ontario has proceeded with 
remarkable speed. 

And to what is that directly and im¬ 
mediately traceable.^ Is it not another 
manifestation of that traditional spirit 
of adventure, the desire to open up new 
lands to cultivation, which is so 
characteristic of the French Canadians? 
Is it not another evidence of the 
courage and the will, as well as the 
ability, to turn the forest into growing 
fields? Is it not making two blades 
grow where only one grew before? 
And are there any other people as able 
and as willing to undertake and satis¬ 
factorily carry out this great work? 
If the French Canadian does not do it, 
who will? One illustration will be 
suflicient. The government of On¬ 
tario, with the cooperation of the Fed¬ 


eral Government, during the year 1920 
placed about 300 returned soldiers in 
and around Kapuskasing. They were 
given free land ready for cultivation, 
with buildings thereon and an advance 
in money and provisions. 

In the fall of 1922 most of these 
would-be settlers had left. A special 
commissioner was appointed by the 
Ontario Government to straighten out 
the confusion and failure resulting 
from this fiasco. Only a few months 
ago the commissioner reported that 
every one of these soldiers had aban¬ 
doned the lands and that about an 
equal number of French Canadian 
farmers had taken them up, and were 
evidently making the very best use of 
their opportunity. They have paid 
for the land and the buildings, though 
they received no advance in cash, in 
provisions or otherwise, and set them¬ 
selves resolutely and methodically to 
the task of exploiting their new 
acquisitions. 

Maritime Provinces 

As in the other provinces of Canada, 
the French were the first settlers in the 
Atlantic provinces. 

The foundation in 1605 of Port 
Royal, which became Annapolis in 1708, 
was in reality the first settlement in 
North America north of St. Augustine 
in Florida. The following year an 
English colony was begun in Virginia, 
to which the name of “Old Dominion” 
was given; then we have the founda¬ 
tion of Quebec in 1606, and it was not 
until 1621 that Sir William Alexander 
started the first English-speaking col¬ 
ony in Canada, partly in Acadia and 
partly in Cape Breton. 

For a century after the foundation 
of “Acadia,” French and English in¬ 
habitants spent most of their time, 
most of their activities and energies in 
bitter rivalry, armed conflicts, and in 


20 


The Annals of the American Academy 


resisting the constant hostilities of the 
Indians. 

Louisburg, many times taken and 
retaken, destroyed, rebuilt in part, re¬ 
mained all this time the storm center of 
the conflict. It was a period of war, 
strife, outlawry, buccaneering, attempts 
to found feudal communities, great dis¬ 
appointments and lamentable failures. 

The inevitable result was very slow 
development until the coming of the 
18th Century. Outside of the farming 
settlements of the French at Chignecto, 
Minas, Petitcodiac and a few others, 
there had been very little cultivation 
of the soil, confined to the rich alluvial 
lands bordering the tidal waters: no 
attempt being made to penetrate the 
forest. 

In 1714 the whole population was 
less than 2,000 and in 1767 it was still 
under 12,000. 

During this period of about 60 years 
Acadia was compelled to change al¬ 
legiance many times: first, in 1708, 
when England gave up the whole of 
Acadia to France; then by the Treaty 
of Utrecht, 1713, France ceded it back 
to England along with Hudson Bay 
and Newfoundland, retaining, how¬ 
ever, Prince Edward Island, then 
known as “He St. Jean” and Cape 
Breton in which the French built the 
great fortress of Louisburg. 

Seventeen hundred and forty-five 
saw the surrender of Louisburg to the 
English, but by the Treaty of Aix-la- 
(yhapelle (1748) it was returned to 
France. Then followed the cruel and 
wanton deportation of the Acadians in 
1755, and shortly afterwards the final 
surrender of Louisburg to Amherst in 
1758. 

In 1783 Nova Scotia’s population 
was nearly doubled by the arrival 
of 10,000 United Empire Loyalists, 
though some of them promptly went 
back to the United States or migrated 
into Ontario. 


Fine Characteristics of Acadians 

Some of the Acadians, against whom 
the decree of expulsion had been pro¬ 
nounced, managed to stay in or about 
Acadia mostly in hiding, and when the 
survivors of the deported came back, 
these men again took up the tilling of 
the Acadian soil and fishing along the 
coast and the banks. Notwithstand¬ 
ing half a century of persecution, 
terminating in deportation, they 
yearned for, returned to and clung to 
their native country. It is largely ow¬ 
ing to their frugality, their power of 
endurance and of reproduction, as well 
as their thrift and attachment to the 
soil, that the population of Nova 
Scotia has not fallen off during recent 
years. The Acadians form more than 
15 per cent of the total population of 
Nova Scotia. 

During the War of the United States 
for Independence, in the face of strong 
propaganda and tempting offers, they 
preferred to forgive, and remained 
loyal to the Crown of Great Britain, 
just as they did in the War of 
1812. 

Before their expulsion they had 
established good farms, comfortable 
homes, beautiful gardens and had 
planted many orchards. They built 
the dikes in the marshlands. Today 
these lands are the highest priced in 
the whole province. Not only have 
they survived the “Grand Derange¬ 
ment” and Lawrence’s inhumanity; 
they have grown and prospered and 
they have forgiven, though they may 
not have forgotten. 

New Brunswick 

There was no settlement of any ac¬ 
count in New Brunswick prior to 1754, 
except in that small part of Nova 
Scotia which later on became part of 
New Brunswick. About 1767 Acadians 
in large numbers established them- 


The French Canadians Outside of Quebec 


selves in Westmoreland, then Glouces¬ 
ter, Madawaska, Victoria, Kent and 
Restigouche. The Madawaska settle¬ 
ment in less than a century grew from 
24 families to 24,000 persons. In the 
counties mentioned the people are very 
largely French and in the total popula¬ 
tion of the province their number is 
nearer one-half than one-third. It is 
owing to them that the population of 
New Brunswick has increased. 

The New Bruns wickers of French 
origin are taking an ever increasing 
share in the business, social and public 
life of the province. One of them has 
just been elected to the Premiership of 
New Brunswick. 

They are prosperous, industrious 
farmers and fishermen; they form a 
happy and contented community, law- 
abiding and respectful of authority, liv¬ 
ing in concord and harmony with their 
neighbors of different race and creed. 

Prince Edward Island 

In 1752 Sieur de la Roque took the 
census of what was then known as He 
St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island, 
and found 2,014 inhabitants, Acadians 
who had settled there but a few years’ 
before. He was much impressed with 
the fertility of the soil, though the 
settlers had made but little progress. 
His inspection was followed in the same 
year by those of one Thomas Pichon 
and of Sieur Franquet. The deporta¬ 
tion of 1755 was followed three years 
after by the equally wanton and cruel 
expulsion of those colonists. With the 
exception of 30 families, all the Aca¬ 
dians on the island, probably 4,000 in 
number, were deported on transports 
totally unfit; most of them were lost 
at sea. 

In 1764 Captain Holland found on 
the island only those 30 families who 
had escaped deportation, all of them 
being extremely poor. 

From these families have grown 


' 21 

the 12,000 French islanders of the 
present day. They have steadily 
increased and now play an im¬ 
portant part in the business and 
public life of the province, as is 
evidenced by the fact that a recent 
Prime Minister of this, his native 
province, is an Acadian who is now a 
member of its judiciary. 

Western Provinces 

The immense territory with its 
gigantic mountains, its great rivers and 
lakes and its almost limitless prairies, 
“Les Pays d’en-Haut,” out of which 
have been carved the Yukon, British 
Columbia, Manitoba and the latest 
provinces of Canada, Alberta and 
Saskatchewan, continued until the 
19th Century to be the exclusive do¬ 
main of the Indians, French Canadians 
and the offspring of the unions of the 
Indians with the early French dis¬ 
coverers, coureurs de bois and fur 
traders, a picturesque mixture whose 
nomadic instincts and habits have 
generally stood in the way of perma¬ 
nent settlement and rendered them 
the easy prey of the rapacious fur¬ 
trading companies. An official record 
now in the Record Office, London, 
shows that in 1767 the number of 
canoes licensed to carry on the fur 
trade over the immense territory 
covered by the Great Lakes, including 
practically the whole of the Northwest 
and even the Mississippi River, were 
owned and used in the fur trade almost 
exclusively by French Canadians. Out 
of 121 canoes so licensed in the year 
just mentioned 107 were owned and 
manned by them. 

From the days when de la Verendrye 
and his companions first contemplated 
the glories of the Rockies, when the 
French pioneers and Catholic mission¬ 
aries carrying the old flag of France 
and the Gospel of Christ, first came to 
them, the Indians, the French Cana- 


22 


The Annals of the American Academy 


dians and afterwards the half-breeds 
were always the faithful friends and 
the sure guides of the intrepid dis¬ 
coverers and Catholic missionaries. 

These missionaries, who always ac¬ 
companied and often preceded the dis¬ 
coverers, soon acquired a very great 
influence which their successors still 
preserve. The sublime and heroic 
zeal, abnegation and devotion, the 
commanding spiritual and moral con¬ 
trol exercised by the latter throughout 
the vast territory, have not been paral¬ 
leled anywhere in this or any other 
part of the world. 

But because these pioneers became 
the pawns of the great fur-trading 
companies and the victims of fire water 
and smallpox, their moral and intel¬ 
lectual improvement, as well as their 
material advancement, were very slow 
and never great. 

Intermarriage 

About the end of the 18th Century a 
large number of the employees of these 
companies were French Canadians. 
It was about 1790 that marriages be¬ 
tween Canadians and Indians began. 
From these unions there were numer¬ 
ous offsprings, many of whom became 
the interpreters and guides of the 
English and French discoverers and 
geographers. They accompanied and 
served as guides to Mackenzie, one 
Beaubien and six French Canadians 
directing them down the Mackenzie 
River to its mouth in 1789, as well as 
Fraser and others in their northern ex¬ 
plorations and discoveries; they them¬ 
selves explored a large part of what 
was then known as Oregon and in 
which are now comprised the states of 
Montana, Idaho, Washington and 
Oregon, as well as British Columbia. 
For instance, in 1830, French Cana¬ 
dians whose names were Etienne 
Lucier, Joseph Gervais, Louis Labonte, 
Pierre Belecque and other employees 


of the Hudson’s Bay Company, estab¬ 
lished themselves on the shores of the 
Willimanette River, in the vicinity of 
what is now the great city of Portland, 
Oregon. 

Hudson’s Bay Company 

The Hudson’s Bay Company was 
founded by Pierre Esprit Radisson and 
Medard de Groseillers in 1670. The 
Northwest Company was organized in 
1783. Nearly all its employees were 
French Canadians and the French 
language was the official language of 
the company. 

When the Hudson’s Bay Company 
later on acquired the sole and undis¬ 
puted control of that immense terri¬ 
tory, previously exploited by them and 
other fur-trading companies, it dis¬ 
charged at least half of the half-breed 
voyageurs then in its employ, and 
these, with their squaws, then settled 
along the banks of the Red and Assini- 
boine Rivers, especially in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Lord Selkirk’s Scotch 
colony. At that date the population 
of the Red River settlements was about 
10,000, composed for considerably 
more than a half of French Canadians 
and French Canadian half-breeds, the 
rest being English and Scotch half- 
breeds and some Indians. The real 
masters until that date were the French 
half-breeds; today they are fast dis¬ 
appearing as separate groups. 

From the year of the acquisition of 
the territorial rights of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company dates the migration of the 
French Canadians from Quebec and 
the return of many of them from the 
United States to Western Canada. 
Slow at first, it has steadily increased 
since. Their principal establishments 
extend all along the Red River to the 
American boundary, at Regina, Qu’- 
Appelle, Woolsey, Forget, Montmartre, 
Gull Lake, Lac Pelletier, Villeroy, 
Note Dame d’ Auvergne, Weyburn, 


The French Canadians Outside of Quebec 


23 


Estevan, Swift Current, Moose Jaw, 
especially Gravelbourg, and also in 
many other parts of Saskatchewan. 

Worth and Ability Again Proved 

In Alberta the French Canadians 
are located principally in Edmonton, 
St. Albert, Morinville, St. Paul, Riviere 
qui-Barre, Beaumont and particularly 
in the flourishing and exclusively 
French colony of Trochuvallee. 

The respective populations of the 
provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and 
Saskatchewan are probably now not 
less than the following: 


Alberta. 33,000 

Manitoba. 42,000 

Saskatchewan. 45,000 


Total. 120,000 


This is twice what the total population 
of New France was at the time of the 
Treaty of Paris. 

In these provinces, by their industry, 
thrift and hard work, the French popu¬ 
lation has acquired wealth and is daily 
growing in importance and influence. 
They have settled in these parts 
permanently. They are there to stay, 
not as many of the other settlers, 
merely to temporarily exploit the land, 
to mine the farms, get out of them all 
that can be taken and then move 
elsewhere. They have proven them¬ 
selves to be the best and most con¬ 
servative pioneers of the Great Cana¬ 
dian West. They always have taken 
an active part in social, economic and 
political affairs. They have nowhere 
tried to shirk their proper share of 
public duty; they are striving to pre¬ 
serve their national characteristics and 
traditions, their religious faith and 
their maternal tongue. They have 
secured representation in the munici¬ 
pal councils, in the legislature, in the 
provincial cabinets and Parliament at 
Ottawa. 


British Columbia—Yukon 
Territories 

There remains only to refer to the 
small groups of French Canadians 
aggregating about 14,000 disseminated 
throughout the vast territory com¬ 
prised within Canada’s province on the 
Pacific, the Yukon and Northwest 
Territories, which was the theater of 
action of many French Canadian ex¬ 
plorers, discoverers and coureurs de 
bois and where they have left many 
traces of their passage and activity. 

The space allotted by the editor to 
this chapter does not permit the 
writer to offer details or observations 
other than those which have already 
been given. 

Lasting Contributions of a Great 

People 

Speaking generally of the different 
French Canadian groups, outside of the 
province of Quebec and the United 
States of America, whose aggregate 
numbers, as already stated, about 
650,000, it may fairly and justly be 
claimed for them that they have car¬ 
ried with them from the mother prov¬ 
ince the best characteristics, habits and 
qualities of their race. They have 
made the most of their opportunities 
which nowhere or at any time have 
been either great or frequent. 

If the hopes entertained by these 
pioneers and their well-wishers have 
not been realized wholly, it is due more 
to the vicissitudes, the handicaps and 
the difficulties which they have had to 
face and overcome. Certain it is that 
they have amply demonstrated that 
as colonizers they have few equals 
and certainly no superiors; they may 
at least take unto themselves the 
satisfaction that in our day and time 
colonizers still constitute the most 
useful, the most necessary and the 
most precious class of Canadian citizen¬ 
ship. They are fully conscious of the 







24 


The Annals of the American Academy 


fact that with their compatriots of the 
province of Quebec, they compose one- 
third of the population of Canada, 
and form an integral and essen¬ 
tial part of the Canadian Confedera¬ 
tion. Loyal to the British Crown, 
attached firmly to the Canadian soil, 
determined to discharge their obliga¬ 
tions and duties to the Canadian Con¬ 
federation, they wish to contribute, 
within the full measure of their op¬ 
portunities, their intellectual and moral 
characteristics and ardent patriotism, 
to the progress and happiness of the 
Canadian nation. 

Hewing down the forest and tilling 
the soil of these new regions may not 
bring great riches to them or their 
children; the state rather than them¬ 
selves will benefit by their strenuous 
labor. Whilst others will be amassing 
fortunes in commerce and industry, 
the French Canadian colonizer real¬ 
izes he will have to be satisfied with a 


hard and laborious life and modest 
returns. He well knows and does not 
forget that the French pioneers and 
missionaries of North America were 
not gold-seekers, that his ancestors for 
as many as eight generations back 
have as a rule been content with the 
assurance of a good comfortable home, 
all his own, with a modest measure of 
ease, and a maximum of that which, 
after all, he thinks is the summit of 
earthly happiness; freedom, peace and 
contentment for himself and his large 
family. 

He will continue to believe that 
there is something else in the world 
worth having and striving for besides 
a large fortune and that the mad rush 
after it, even when successful, has its 
penalties and drawbacks, and not in¬ 
frequently is accompanied by sacrifices 
to conscience, the love of neighbor and 
of God. And who will say that his 
philosophy is not sound 


Emigration of Canadians to the United States 

By G. E. Jackson 

Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Toronto 


T he westward movement of the 
people during the last thirty years 
is one of the most familiar themes in the 
domestic history of Canada. Possess¬ 
ing a population of almost exactly 
250,000 in 1891, the four western 
provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, 
Alberta and British Columbia num¬ 
bered no less than 2,500,000 at the 
most recent Census, that of 1921. 

It was shortly before the former date 
that the great enterprise associated 
with the names of Lords Mountstephen 
and Strathcona came to fruition: the 
first Canadian transcontinental dates 
from 1885. But its decisive vindica¬ 
tion was delayed until the middle 
nineties, when a world-wide revival in 
the demand for farm products, follow¬ 
ing a generation of agricultural de¬ 
pression, opened wide the doors of 
opportunity no less to the western 
townsman who supplied his needs than 
to the prairie farmer by the railway. 

Readiness to Migrate 

From that time till the present the 
tide of migration from the settled 
eastern provinces has never flagged. 
The number of Canadians of eastern 
birth and education who today live 
beyond the Manitoba boundary is, 
probably, not far from half a million. 
The steadily shrinking population of 
more than thirty rural ridings in On¬ 
tario bears witness eloquently to the 
strength of this attractive lure. 

Not unnaturally, this evidence that 
the native-born Canadian is of a 
migratory habit, and shakes off easily 
the ties of home, has been viewed 
by many with complacence, and by 
some with pride. If the romance of 


pioneering is sometimes hidden from 
the pioneer, it is seldom overlooked by 
the spectator. To those who witnessed 
this tremendous movement the rail¬ 
road builder was an epic figure; and his 
vassals the children of the homestead 
settler were within the covenants. 
Nor was there any lack of singers to 
declare their praises; the vendor of 
western real estate was a self-ap¬ 
pointed sagaman. In an age disposed 
to value fully the things of this world, 
the success of the migrant was meas¬ 
ured by the growth of unearned in¬ 
crement. For a period of years before 
the war, that success was the history 
of Canada. 

Across the Border 

But concurrently with this expansion 
westward there was a movement of 
another kind, of equal or more than 
equal volume, which could not be 
regarded with the same unbounded 
satisfaction: the migration of Cana¬ 
dians to the United States. 

To the politicians of the seventies 
and eighties, the tide of emigration 
from Canada had caused very grave 
concern. “The Americans may say 
with truth,” wrote Goldwin Smith ^ in 
1891, “that if they do not annex 
Canada, they are annexing the Ca¬ 
nadians. They are annexing the very 
flower of the Canadian population, 
and in the way most costly to the 
country from which it is drawn, since 
the men whom that country has been 
at the expense of breeding leave it 
just as they arrive at manhood and 
begin to produce.” 

1 Canada and the Canadian Question. By 
Goldwin Smith, D.C.L. P. 233. 


25 


26 


The Annals of the American Academy 


There is good reason to believe that 
the migration of Canadians to the 
United States which prompted this 
gloomy reflection has never been ar¬ 
rested. Over a considerable period 
it was certainly diminished; but even 
in the first fourteen years of the pres¬ 
ent century, when immigrants from 
overseas were pouring into the Do¬ 
minion by the hundred thousand, and 
the West was calling out for population, 
there was a continuous exodus of 
young and enterprising men and 
women, who were born, nurtured, and 
educated in Canada, only to leave the 
country when they reached maturity. 

Not until lately has there been a 
general revival of interest in this 
phenomenon. Too often in the past 
the tendency has been to consider im¬ 
migration as an isolated problem—^to 
treat it, not as the substitution, in part, 
of one racial stock for another, but as a 
net addition to the total population. 
The readiness to do so was never, 
perhaps, more marked than in the 
first ten years of the present century. 
Happily, there is warrant for believing 
that at present a broader view pre¬ 
vails; for it is clear that to take u}) 
this narrow standpoint is to leave out 
of account a complex and important 
group of impulses—impulses which, 
by draining away much of the best 
blood of the nation, have effectively 
changed its character, and promise 
further changes in the future. 

We have indeed the best of reasons 
for asking whether we can afford any 
longer to study the problem of im¬ 
migration except in close connection 
with domestic difliculties of a practical 
character, which affect alike the native- 
born resident and the newcomer. 

No serious attempt has been made 
by the Canadian Department of Im¬ 
migration to record the number of 
emigrants leaving the country. It has 
been possible in recent years, by the 


courtesy of the United States Immigra¬ 
tion Department, to secure a record of 
the number departing across the Ameri¬ 
can border, and to classify them ac¬ 
cording to birthplace; but whether 
such a record can pretend to great 
accuracy is at least open to question. 
The task of distinguishing the settler 
from the tourist is made infinitely more 
diflScult at border points than at the 
seaports, both by the freedom of 
movement between the two countries, 
and by the fact that they possess the 
same language. In any case, an en¬ 
quiry which attempts to cover an 
extended period must be based on 
information from some other source. 

The source most immediately availa¬ 
ble is the Census of the United States. 
Though it tells us nothing of the Ca¬ 
nadians moving into the United States 
in any period, it presents in great de¬ 
tail the number of Canadians living 
in the United States at the time of 
each enumeration, distinguishing them 
by place of residence, and in later 
years also by language, as French and 
Other Canadians. 

The results are summarized in 
Table I. 

It will be seen that during a period 
of sixty years there was a continuous 
increase in the number of Canadians 
living in the United States. The 
period in which this increase was 
most rapid was the decade from 1880- 
1890. The number of French Ca¬ 
nadians was at the maximum in 1900, 
and since then has fallen off considera¬ 
bly. The number of English-speak¬ 
ing Canadians did not reach its max¬ 
imum till 1910, and had fallen off 
by scarcely more than 1 per cent in 
1920. 

Of the total number of native-born 
Canadians living on this continent, 
it is probable that the proportion 
permanently domiciled in the United 
States was approximately as follows: 


Emigration of Canadians to the United States 


27 


TABLE I 


Number of Canadian-born Residents of the United States, 1850-1920 



French Canadians 

Other Canadians 

Total 

1850. 



147,711 

1860. 



249,970 

1870. 



493,464 

1880. 



717,157 

1890. 

302,496 

678,442 

980,938 

1900. 

395,126 

784,796 

1,179,922 

1910. 

385,083 

819,554 

1,204,637 

1920. 

307,786 

810,092 

1,117,878 


In 1880, 165 per 1,000 
In 1890, 192 per 1,000 
In 1900, 203 per 1,000 
In 1910, 179 per 1,000 

It is unfortunately not yet possible 
to calculate the probable ratio for 
1920. 

Attempts at Calculation 

Using these figures as a basis, the 
late Dr. Morley Wickett^ made an 
attempt to measure the volume of 
emigration during the second half of 
the nineteenth century. His method 
was interesting, and, so far as I know, 
original. He took the absolute in¬ 
crease in the number of Canadians 
living in the United States in each 
intercensal period, assumed an average 
age for the group of twenty-five years 
at the time of enumeration, and cal¬ 
culated by means of a standard mor¬ 
tality table the probable number of 
survivors in 1900. The proportion 
between the net increase from 1850- 
1900 in the number of Canadians 
resident in the United States, and 
the probable number of survivors 
from the increase of each decade gave 
him a multiple which he did not 
hesitate to apply to the total increase 

■ 2 Canadians in the United States. By S. 
Morley Wickett, Ph.D. Political Science Quar¬ 
terly, Vol. XXI, 1906. Subsequently reprinted 
in the Annals of the American Academy, 


from 1850-1900 in the number of 
persons of Canadian birth. Probably 
of set purpose. Dr. Wickett made his 
calculation loosely: the conclusion 
which emerges from his study is that 
the net emigration of native-born 
Canadians to the United States during 
the whole of the fifty years was rather 
more than 1,500,000. 

The method employed is open to 
criticism from more than one stand¬ 
point; but it will serve. A later cal¬ 
culation based on other methods 
reaches much the same results. If it be 
supposed that the crude annual death- 
rate among Canadians in the United 
States during the whole period was 
about 17 per 1,000, it may be shown 
that the probable emigration during 
the second half of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury was almost exactly 1,550,000. 

An advantage of the latter method 
is that it makes possible an estimate 
of the movement in each inter-censal 
period, and a comparison of move¬ 
ments in different periods with one 
another.^ The volume of emigration 
in each inter-censal period calculated 

3 Limitations of space do not permit a dis¬ 
cussion of the reasons which have led to the 
selection of a death-rate of 17 per 1,000. Lest 
it be urged, however, that the death-rate is 
arbitrarily chosen and likely to be wrong, the 
following considerations are submitted: (a) That 
a given error in the selection of the death-rate 
causes an error slightly less than half as large 





























28 


The Annals of the American Academy 


to the nearest 5,000 in each case, is as 
follows: 

TABLE II 


Calculated Net Emigration of Canadian- 
born Citizens to the United States, 
1850-1920 


1850-18G0. 

135,000 

305,000 

325,000 

410,000 

380,000 

225,000 

110,000 

1860-1870. 

1870-1880. 

1880-1890... 

1890-1900. 

1900-1910. 

1910-1920. 

Total. 

1,890,000 



Considered in themselves, the figures 
for the decades 1880-1890 and 1890- 
1900 are a striking confirmation of the 
statement already quoted from Dr. 
Goldwin Smith. But the seriousness 
of the situation which confronted 
Canada during these trying years may 
be shown even more vividly by the 
presentation of the facts in terms of 
natural increase. 

Emigration in Terms of Natural 
Increase 

A comparison of the calculated 
volume of emigration in each of these 
decades with the natural increase of 
the Canadian-born population living 
in North America during the same 
time establishes a strong probability 
that in each of them at least half of 
the natural increase, and perhaps 
rather more than half, was lost to 
Canada through emigration. The cal¬ 
culated natural increase during the 

in the calculated volume of migration, i.e., that 
if the selected death-rate be 20 per cent too high, 
the calculated volume of migration will be 
slightly less than 10 per cent too high; (b) that 
an alteration of the death-rate selected will not 
affect materially the relative 'proportions of 
emigration in different inter-censal periods, to 
the total. 


years from 1880-1890 is 775,000 (as 
compared with an emigration from 
Canada numbering, as above, 410,000); 
and the corresponding figures for the 
decade from 1890-1900 are 685,000 
and 380,000. 

Even in the years from 1900-1910, 
it is probable that more than 20 per 
cent of the natural increase of the 
native-born population was lost in the 
same manner. 

Canadians have solid ground for 
satisfaction in the steady diminution 
of the stream during the twentieth 
century: but since the beginning of the 
present depression in agriculture (more 
especially since the beginning of in¬ 
dustrial revival in United States), 
a melancholy series of reports from 
many parts of Canada bears witness 
to the fact that the tide is once more 
flowing freely. 

“So far as the western provinces are con¬ 
cerned,” said a member of the House of 
Commons^ at the beginning of the present 
session, “we find the largest crop in our 
history, and yet we find agriculture in a 
deplorable financial and economic condi¬ 
tion. . . . An examination of the railway 
figures indicating the emigration through 
the port of Kingsgate, which is one only 
of the avenues of exit from the province 
of Alberta to the States, shows that in the 
three months ending December 31st last, 
there has been an excess of emigration over 
immigration of approximately 5,000 paying 
passengers.” 

Not all of these, however, were Cana¬ 
dians. 

Political Aspects 

Canada is interested for political 
as well as for obvious social and eco¬ 
nomic reasons in a question which 
demands more detailed analysis. Her 
future must to some extent be de¬ 
termined by the racial composition 
of this stream of emigration; and her 

^ Mr. Shaw, House of Commons Debates. 
February 5, 1923. 
















Emigration of Canadians to the United States 


29 


immediate, if not her most important 
interest in this phase of the question 
is electoral. Quebec has a fixed mem¬ 
bership of sixty-five in the House of 
Commons. Under the British North 
America Act, the numerical strength 
of the members representing other 
provinces depends on the changing 
proportion between the population 
of this province, and that of the Do¬ 
minion as a whole. About four-fifths 
of all the French Canadians in Canada 
live in Quebec; and they constitute 
in themselves about the same pro¬ 
portion of its total population. It is 
probable, therefore, that any decisive 
change in the numerical relationship 
between French and English-speaking 
Canadians will react on the political 
balance of power. 

Comparisons 

Which of the two peoples composing 
the native population of the Dominion 
has been the more ready to migrate 
Until 1890, when the distinction al¬ 
ready mentioned between French and 
Other Canadians was introduced into 
the Census of the United States, 
the question remained unanswered. 
During the last thirty years it 
appears that the situation has been as 
follows: 


TABLE III 

Calculated Net Emigration from Canada 
TO THE United States, 1890-1920 



French 

Canadians 

Other 

Canadians 

1890-1900. 

150,000 
55,000 
20.000 * 

230,000 

170,000 

130,000 

1900-1910. 

1910-1920. 



* Immigration. There is reason to believe that 
the number of French Canadians returning from 
the United States to Canada during the years 
1910-1920 was in excess of the number migrating 
from Canada to the United States. Whether 
the backward movement is composed mainly 


It will be seen that in each of these 
three decades Other Canadians form 
the bulk of the movement; indeed, 
in the most recent inter-censal period 
they seem to constitute the whole of 
it. But it is not by counting heads 
that we shall find an answer to the 
question immediately before us. The 
French Canadians represent less than 
40 per cent of the total native-born 
population of Canada; that they should 
supply less than half the total emigra¬ 
tion of the native-born is very natural, 
and not in itself significant. To reach a 
positive conclusion, we must resort 
again to the comparison between 
the natural increase of the people,^ 
and their emigration. 

It is not possible at present to carry 
this comparison beyond the year 1910. 
Fortunately, however, in the years 
following 1910 no precise comparison 
is needed. For the two preceding 
decades the calculated ratios are widely 
divergent, as is shown in Table IV. 

French Canadians Less Migratory 

Making every allowance for possible 
errors in the choice of an assumed 
death-rate (and these must in turn 
be reflected in the figures, if on a scale 
much smaller) it appears that, great 
as the migration has been, both of 
French and Other Canadians, the 
French have for at least a generation 
past been the less inclined to move 
across the border; and that, for a time 
at least, the “leakage” of French 
Canadians to the United States ceased 
altogether. It is something of a 
paradox that the community whose 

of young French Canadians returning to find 
employment in Canada, or of older men and 
women returning to spend their declining years 
among their own people, it is at present im¬ 
possible to say, 

® As before, the natural increase is calculated 
in respect of all the native-born Canadians living 
on the North American continent, whether in 
the United States or Canada. 














30 


The Annals of the American Academy 


TABLE IV 

Emigration of Native-born Canadians to the United States: Percentage of Total Natural 

Increase 



Probable Natural 
Increase 

Calculated 

Emigration 

Percentage 

A. 1890-1900 




French.. 

330,000 

150,000 

46% 

Other. 

355,000 

230,000 

65% 

B. 1900-1910 




French. 

365,000 

55,000 

15% 

Other. 

555,000 

170,000 

31% 


birth-rate is relatively high seems at 
present to retain its children; while 
other communities on either side of it, 
whose cradles are by no means always 
full, must still apparently pay human 
tribute to the modern Minos, and 
annually lose a quota. 

The political importance of Quebec 
is in any case endangered by the com¬ 
ing of each new batch of immigrants; 
for most of them are destined to find 
work in English-speaking provinces. 
Inasmuch, however, as the French 
Canadians have been for many years 
less migratory than their neighbors, 
their greater reluctance to leave Can¬ 
ada has obviously been acting as a 
counterpoise. It is not to be wondered 
if their historians dwell with par¬ 
donable pride on this attachment, 
as evidence of enduring vitality in 
a civilization older than the May¬ 
flower. As an element in the present 
strength of Lower Canada • we must 
not ignore it. 

Causes of Change in Type 

It is possible that a strict enquiry 
into the forces which have brought 
about the recent rapid diminution 
in the number of French Canadians 
living in the United States might 
yield results which would assist the 
governments of provinces other than 


Quebec in the working out of policy. 
Let it be frankly confessed, however, 
that this is unlikely; and for two rea¬ 
sons: 

(1.) The French Canadians, in the 
United States as well as in Canada, 
form a compact minority. They are 
homogeneous alike in religion and in 
language. Their religion serves as a 
powerful bond of union between them; 
their language, to some extent at least, 
as a barrier restricting intercourse 
with other peoples. By contrast, the 
lot of English-speaking Canadians 
resident in the United States is very 
different. Heterogeneous in religion, 
and hampered by no barriers of lan¬ 
guage, they are so prone to rapid 
assimilation with the Americans among 
whom they settle, that a carefully 
planned scheme of repatriation, even 
if it should achieve a moderate success 
among the former, might well fail 
altogether when applied to the latter 
group. 

(2.) Apart from this consideration, 
there are good grounds for believing 
that while some of the reasons for 
the changing composition of the Ca¬ 
nadian emigrant population are to 
be sought in Canada, another (perhaps 
no less important) may be found in 
the westward and southward expansion 
of American industry. 
















Emigration of Canadians to the United States 


31 


In the period from 1890-1920, 
while the population of the northern 
and southern states grew by 60 per 
cent, that of the western states® in¬ 
creased by nearly 200 per cent. The 
change in the distribution of economic 
opportunity, of which this develop¬ 
ment is both a consequence and an 
illustration, must inevitably have less¬ 
ened the stimulus to migration in 
certain parts of Canada, while increas¬ 
ing it in others; for distant drums 
beat faintly. 

Geographic Influence 

The geographical distribution of 
the French and English-speaking Ca¬ 
nadians in the United States has 
always been for obvious reasons quite 
dissimilar. Emigrants from each Ca¬ 
nadian province tend naturally to 
make their first settlement in the state 
or states immediately to the south of 
them. The towns and cities of New 
England have a stronger attraction 
for men of the Maritime Provinces or 
Quebec than for those whose birth¬ 
place lies west of the river Ottawa. 
Thus in 1920 there were more than 
10,000 French Canadians both in 

® That is, of Montana, Washington, Oregon, 
Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, 
California, New Mexico and Arizona. 


Fall River and in Lowell. The number 
in New Bedford was slightly less than 
10,000. Next in order of the large 
industrial cities were Worcester, with 
4,300, and Springfield, with 3,700. 
It is more than a coincidence that all 
of them lie within the state of Massa¬ 
chusetts; and there is every reason 
to believe that most of the 40,000 Other 
Canadians enumerated in Boston hailed 
originally from New Brunswick, Prince 
Edward Island or Nova Scotia. In 
the same way do Detroit and Buffalo 
make a natural appeal to the native 
of Ontario; in the former of these 
there were more than 55,000 English- 
speaking Canadians at the time of 
the last Census. Seattle and Los 
Angeles have a direct attraction for the 
migrant from British Columbia, where 
sea communication is direct and easy; 
the number of Other Canadians in 
each of them exceeded 13,000 in 1920. 

The facts with regard to distribution 
are summarized in Tables V, VI, 
and VII. For the convenience of the 
reader, the maximum figures for each 
of the main geographic divisions are 
printed in italics. It will be noted 
that in point of time they differ quite 
considerably. 

A further consolidation of the figures 
shows vividly how the recent develop- 


TABLE V 


Geographical Distribution of French Canadians in the United States, 1890-1920 


Geographic Divisions 

1890 

• 

1900 

1910 

1920 

New England. 

205,761 

275.435 

278,156 

240,385 

Middle Atlantic. 

23,593 

29,785 

27,012 

17,045 

East North Central. 

46,789 

55,55It 

46,614 

29,267 

West North Central. 

18,924 

21,^65 

17,920 

10,459 

South Atlantic. 

284 

636 

763 

813 

East South Central. 

124 

U9 

331 

179 

West South Central. 

270 

1,041 

l,0k5 

590 

Mountain. 

3,361 

5,608 

5,276 

3,482 

Pacific. 

3,390 

5,183 

7,966 

5,566 





TTniff'd Statfis. 

302,496 

395,126 

385,083 

307,786 

































32 


The Annals of the American Academy 


TABLE VI 


Geographical Distribution of Other Canadians in the United States, 1890-1920 


Geographic Divisions 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1920 

New England. 

174,406 

235,755 

21^8,083 

233,971 

Middle Atlantic. 

86,469 

109,642 

121,357 

120,049 

East North Central. 

228,784 

U2,091 

226,526 

222,213 

West North Central. 

107,163 

103,213 

84,929 

69,785 

South Atlantic. 

5,128 

6,284 

7,918 

12,059 

East South Central. 

3,034 

2,960 

3,178 

2,967 

West South Central. 

4,725 

5,842 

7,625 

8,105 

Mountain. 

22,223 

26,582 

31,336 

30,185 

Pacific. 

46,510 

52,427 

88,602 

110,758 

United States. 

678,442 

784,796 

819,514 

810,092 


TABLE VII 

Geographical Distribution of All Canadians in the United States, 1890-1920 


Geographic Divisions 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1920 

New England. 

380,167 

511,190 

526,239 

474,356 

Middle Atlantic. 

110,062 

139,427 

11(8,369 

137,094 

East North Central. 

275,573 

297,61(5 

273,140 

251,480 

West North Central. 

126,087 

124,678 

102,849 

80,244 

South Atlantic. 

5,412 

6,920 

8,681 

12,872 

East South Central. 

3,158 

3,379 

3,509 

3,146 

West South Central. 

4,995 

6,883 

8,670 

8,695 

Mountain. 

25,584 

32,190 

36,612 

33,667 

Pacific.. 

49,900 

57,610 

96,568 

116,32 i 

United States. 

980,938 

1,179,922 

1,204,637 

1,117,878 


nient of the western states has in¬ 
fluenced the situation. In Table VIII 
the two groups of Canadian emigrants 
are classified in two categories only, 
those who were living in the northern 
and southern states at the time of each 
Census being placed in the former, 
those who were living in the western 
states constituting the latter. 

It will be noticed that there was an 
all-round increase of numbers in the 
decade from 1890-1900. On the other 
hand, so far as the northern and south¬ 
ern group is concerned, it is evident 
that during the whole of the period 
from 1900-1920 the number of Other 


Canadians, as well as of French Ca¬ 
nadians has been diminishing. 

The decline has been as follows: 



1900-1910 

1910-1920 

French. 

-3% 

—20% 

Other. 

-1% 

—4% 


In 1920 there were some 36,500 fewer 
English-speaking Canadians in this 
category than had been enumerated in 
1900. Only the remarkable attraction 
of the western states for English- 
speaking emigrants from Canada suf- 

































































33 


I 


Emigration of Canadians to the United States 

TABLE VIII 


Geographical Distribution of Canadians Resident in the United. States 



Northern and 
Southern States 

Western States 

Total 

1890 




French. 

295,745 

6,751 

302,496 

Other. 

611,709 

66,733 

678,442 

1900 




French. 

384,355 

10,791 

395,126 

Other. 

705,787 

79,009 

784,796 

1910 




French. . 

371,841 

13,242 

385,083 

Other. 

699,576 

119,938 

819,514 

1920 




French . 

298,738 

9,048 

307,786 

Other. 

669,149 

140,943 

810,092 


ficed to swell the total during the first 
ten ye?Rrs of the twentieth century; and 
even this was insufficient altogether 
to neutralize the shrinkage which oc¬ 
curred elsewhere in the second dec¬ 
ade. 

Nevertheless, if the west be left out 
of consideration, and attention be con¬ 
fined to the larger group of states, it 
is clear that the ostensible similarity 
between French and Other Canadians, 
involved in this contemporary shrink¬ 
age in their numbers, masks a difference 
that is very real. The fact that the 
French diminished from four to five 
times as rapidly as the others rein¬ 
forces the conclusion which has already 
been drawn that—for whatever reason 
—they feel the ties of home more 
strongly than their Anglo-Saxon neigh¬ 
bors. 

National Restlessness 

Demonstrably more migratory than 
either the British or Americans, the 
people of Canada have not yet com¬ 
pletely lost the restlessness that marks 
a race of pioneers. Until within the 
present generation, the mental atti¬ 
tude of the frontiersman was plainly 


visible and often dominant in politics: 
it may be long in disappearing. If 
some of its manifestations have not 
been altogether lovely, there are many, 
nevertheless, who will watch its passing 
with regret. 

When harnessed in the service of the 
country, that restlessness may prove 
a source of power. Though he did 
not always understand the folk with 
whom he lived, the late Louis Hemon 
has seized in a vivid phrase and well 
described “the passion of a man whose 
soul was in the clearing, not the tilling 
of the land.” Such a passion sends one 
man to the wilderness for gold; another 
to the west in search of oil; a third into 
the maelstrom of imperial politics 
in London. These have a conscious¬ 
ness of purpose; not one of them is 
lost to Canada. But there are many 
whose tendency to roam is not thus 
disciplined and governed; men to 
whom the common round is irksome, 
the distant prospect bright. The con¬ 
sciousness of nationality has not yet 
bound them. The prizes which await 
even a moderate success in the United 
States have an appeal that will not be 
denied; they make their homes across 




4 

























34 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the border. Once established there, 
they soon find reasons for remaining. 

. . . “Evadere 
“Hoc opus, hie labor est.” 

The decline in the volume of emigra¬ 
tion to the United States during the 
twentieth century suggests that in 
recent years this restlessness of temper 
has tended increasingly to find ex¬ 
pression in Canada. But the swiftness 
of the decline is due by no means 
wholly to the growth of opportunities 
in the Dominion. 

Effect of the War 

Involving, as it did, the enlistment 
of 590,000 men in the Canadian Ex¬ 
peditionary Force (of whom it is only 
reasonable to suppose, in default of 
precise information, that at least 
50 per cent, and probably more were 
born within the country) the war 
affected the stream of emigration in 
two ways. In the first place, many 
must have been absorbed in military 
service who would otherwise have 
gone in search of fortune to the United 
States. In the second place, not a 
few Canadians who had made their 
homes abroad came back in order to 
take their places in the ranks. But 
for the war, it is reasonably certain 
that there would have been a larger 
net emigration in the second decade 
than in fact occurred. It is useless 
to speculate whether this would have 
been as great as, or smaller than, that 
of the period from 1901-1910. 

It is to be hoped that the future * 
expansion of Canada will provide at¬ 
tractive opportunities for an increasing 
proportion of the native population. 
Nevertheless, we shall do well to recog¬ 
nize that there will be recurring inter¬ 
vals in which the tide of emigration is 
likely to flow, sometimes with consider¬ 
able freedom. 

(1) The comparatively wide ex¬ 


tremes of climate which are to be 
found in most parts of the Dominion 
make the problem of seasonal unem¬ 
ployment a matter of greater concern 
than in countries with a smaller range 
of variation. In the building in¬ 
dustries, for example, there is a slack 
season which, if it has been shortened 
considerably within recent years by 
technical improvements in construc¬ 
tion, is unlikely to disappear, at least 
for many years to come. In so far as 
building activities are resumed each 
spring in many parts of the United 
States a little earlier than in Canada, 
the temptation to cross the border 
will always beset the Canadian worker 
who has already suffered from a spell 
of winter unemployment in his own 
country. 

(2) In the periodic depressions which 
mark the trade cycle, it is a matter of 
observation that industrial revival 
in the United States precedes, as a rule 
by some months, industrial reviv^al 
in Canada. Here again is an influence 
which tends to foster emigration, and 
which (unfortunately) applies not only 
to the group of industries which is 
subject to marked seasonal fluctuation, 
but to the whole range of economic 
activity. 

With these considerations in mind we 
may contemplate without undue con¬ 
cern the probability that a certain 
“leakage” of native blood will occur 
in the future, as it has done in the 
past. So long as it is small, it need 
occasion no surprise. If, on the other 
hand, it should ever again assume the 
dimensions which distinguished the 
period from 1870-1900, there would 
be little consolation for those who 
remained at home, in the thought 
that much of the best work done in the 
United States is to the credit of Ca¬ 
nadians. In proportion to their ca¬ 
pacity for service, they can ill be 
spared by their own country. 


The Immigrant Settler 

By P. H. Bryce, M.A., M.D., Ottawa 

Formerly Chief Medical OflBcer of Immigration 


I T would be of much interest and 
would as well supply an adequate 
background for our present study if 
we could relate the story of the many 
bands of emigrants, who leaving for¬ 
eign lands, whether in Europe or 
America have, during the past 300 
years, found their way to Canadian 
shores and played their part in making 
up the macrocosm of what we may 
fairly designate the Canadian Nation. 
Our task must, however, for the 
present, be a less ambitious one of 
trying to present something like a 
composite picture, made up of the 
salient features reflected from the 
lives of the emigrants, who since 1880 


have landed in Canada, even though 
they may not have remained per¬ 
manently as settlers. 

Nevertheless it will be useful to 
recall the several more or less distinct 
periods which have marked Canadian 
immigration since the beginning in 
1600. They are the following, with 
populations supplied so far as any 
estimates can be made from census 
figures taken in different provinces in 
the early years at dates comparatively 
approximating each other: 

Immigration Periods 

(1) Each of these more or less dis¬ 
tinct periods might well form the 


Year 

1660-1683 

Pop, 

9,677 

1760-1784 

160,000 

1784-1815 

350,000 

1815-1825 

790,000 

1825-1841 

1,750,000 

1841-1860 

3,200,000 

1860-1880 

4,328,810 

1880-1900 

5,371,315 

1900-1914 

8,000,000 

1914-1922 

9,000,000 


Permanent French settlement, begun under Colbert’s im¬ 
migration scheme with formation of Seigneuries with 
Feudal laws. 

British and American traders and settlers, with loyalist 
refugees from the United States. 

Period of U. E. Loyalist immigartion, and of many immi¬ 
grants from the United States and Great Britain. 

Period of British soldier settlements with many Scotch, 
Irish and English immigrants; also a considerable number 
from the United States. 

Period of continued British immigration especially of the 
artisan, agricultural and labor classes and considerable 
immigration from the United States. 

Period of greatest immigration to Canada from Great 
Britain of agricultural and artisan radical classes con¬ 
tinued both from Great Britain and Ireland. 

Period of slowing down of British immigration, owing to 
the absence of good free grant lands in Ontario and Quebec 
and a lack of railway communication to the Northwest. 

Period of diminution of immigration to Canada from Great 
Britain and the continent of Europe, owing to the great 
free grant lands opened up in the northwestern states. 

Period of the greatest immigration to Canada from Great 
Britain, the United States and the continent of Europe. 

Period of almost complete cessation of immigration on ac¬ 
count of the Great War and its after effects. 

35 


36 


The Annals of the American Academy 


basis for a separate study; but it will 
suffice to indicate a few of the in¬ 
fluences belonging to each, which 
affected Canadian development. The 
fur-trading period was the outcome of 
the ferment which caused the sixteenth 
century to be called that of religious 
wars, beginning shortly after the 
Spanish discovery of , America, and 
when the race for wealth began in the 
New World, stimulated by the lov^e 
of adventure and discovery, and by 
the desire of the different European 
nations to plant both their flag and 
their religion amongst the savage 
peoples of the new lands of the West. 
That this was true in Canada we learn 
from Champlain himself and from the 
serious missionary efforts made in the 
first half of the century to extend the 
propaganda of the Jesuits to the Indian 
tribes of Canada. During this period 
scarcely a seigneury or other settle¬ 
ment was established in Canada, and 
it was not until the second period that 
permanent settlement was really be¬ 
gun. This was due to Colbert, the 
astute minister of Louis XIV of France, 
who seeing England establishing new 
colonies along the Atlantic coast to 
the south and in the East Indies 
under a trading company, while the 
Dutch had already a similar trading 
company in India and a growing 
settlement on the Hudson River, was 
determined to make France equally 
active both in commerce and politi¬ 
cal power in these newly discovered 
lands. 

(2|) That Colbert’s plan was suc¬ 
cessful during some twenty years of 
great activity was evidenced by the 
well-established settlements along the 
St. Lawrence, only stopped during 
the Indian wars under Frontenac and 
the continuation of the European 
wars between France and England. 
But Canada had become now a real 
colony with its settled agriculture. 


with its seigneuries and feudal laws 
and customs established, and a steady 
growth in spite of the almost constant 
European wars found a homogeneous 
people to the number of 60,000 in 
1760 when Canada passed into the 
hands of the English. 

(3) The third period of immigration 
was in many ways as unique as the 
first. For a century and a half the 
almost continuous European wars had 
transmitted their influence to the 
colonies in America, and during this 
period it might be said that there was 
almost no time when the colonies 
along the British and French borders 
were not engaged in more or less active 
hostilities against each other. Then 
came the period after the American 
Revolution when King George’s men 
were driven from the thirteen states 
of the Union, and it seemed the irony 
of fate that these oldest protagonists 
of the French should have found it 
necessary to become exiles from their 
homeland and to found new settle¬ 
ments in the country of their erstwhile 
foes. But in Canada there was room 
for all, and the very needs of the 
refugee Loyalists found many a re¬ 
sponse in the hearts of the kindly 
French habitants, who after all had 
found they were happy and secure, 
retaining their old laguage, laws and 
religion under the same flag, for which 
these refugees had fought. Fortu¬ 
nately it was made possible for the 
two peoples to expand side by side, 
each developing its own ideals with¬ 
out let or hindrance by the formation 
of the two provinces of Upper and 
Lower Canada in 1791. 

A Common Nationality 

(4) Thus has continued for over a 
century the development of the two 
provinces side by ‘side, giving an illus¬ 
tration almost better than any other 
in the world of how freedom and liberty 


The Immigrant Settler 


37 


under a paternal government, on the 
whole one desiring to rule justly, can 
result in building up a common na¬ 
tionality out of diverse elements. 
The common national feeling was 
cemented by the War of 1812, after 
which the real struggle for the con¬ 
quest of the Canadian wilderness and 
turning it into smiling fields began 
both in Upper and Lower Canada. 
The Loyalists and half-pay British 
officers brought with them some capi¬ 
tal, a strong desire for education and 
something of the culture and superior 
qualities, associated with birth and 
greater opportunity, which in this 
case were fortunately supplemented 
by the energy and practical industry, 
which have always marked the agri¬ 
cultural and artisan classes of Great 
Britain. Evils both political and social 
doubtless grew up with the privileges 
granted to these early settlers, growing 
for a time into an oligarchy, which in 
some degree impeded the development 
of the two provinces as well as the 
settlements in the Maritime Provinces; 
but this largely ended with the union 
of Upper and Lower Canada and the 
establishment of responsible govern¬ 
ment in 1848. It is quite possible 
that this period of internal conflict 
was not without its uses in educating 
a people, unaccustomed in many ways 
to the business of politics, to develop 
individuality of thought and action in 
a new land, since after the Union the 
evolution of government in Canada, 
both national and municipal, de¬ 
veloped much more rapidly even than 
in the British Islands. 

Rapid Development 

(5) The next twenty years of Ca¬ 
nadian immigration and settlement 
proved the most strenuous politically, 
which probably Canada has seen. The 
development was extremely rapid and 
the immigration more than doubled be¬ 


tween the years 1841 and 1861. These 
immigrants were almost wholly of 
British origin, and brought with them 
the positive opinions, which had de¬ 
veloped during the previous forty 
years of radical discussions, which 
primarily followed the ferment created 
by the French Revolution. Municipal 
government was established on a firm 
basis in both provinces, anachronisms 
such as the Clergy Reserves in Upper 
Canada and the Seigneurial System 
in Lower Canada were swept away, 
and a broad and generous franchise 
supplied the people with an opportu¬ 
nity for developing self-government 
in its highest sense. 

By 1861 the good lands of the two 
old provinces were well filled with new 
settlers. Railroads had already been 
built from the ocean to the American 
border to the west and beyond it, 
and as yet the western Canadian 
provinces had not been added to the 
Dominion. Some new ideas were es¬ 
sential if Canada was to fulfil her 
destiny. Confederation was estab¬ 
lished in 1867 and the old provinces 
of Canada had added to them those 
down by the sea, and in 1870 the great 
Northwest, and British Columbia in 
1873 completed the outlines of a coun¬ 
try, which was to develop a half a 
continent during the next fifty years. 
The long continued struggle for in¬ 
dividual freedom, which had gone on 
for more than twenty years in the 
United States ending in a civil war, 
had doubtless served to stimulate still 
further the principles of freedom and 
human rights in Canada; while with 
the filling up of the western prairies, 
which began in 1871, all that was now 
necessary was industry, honesty in 
public life and correct economic prin¬ 
ciples in order to insure true greatness 
to the Canadian Dominion, which was 
now well started on her career of de¬ 
velopment. 


38 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Depression Following Expansion 

(6) The year 1880 stands out in the 
political history of Canada in bold out¬ 
line. From 1866 to 1873 a period of 
continuous expansion to some extent 
artificial, had gone on keeping pace 
in some degree with the tremendous 
development of the western United 
States following the Civil War. The 
railway had reached the Pacific; im¬ 
migrants, nearly half a million yearly, 
were pouring in; expansion became 
enormous and begot almost unlimited 
land speculation. Of course a crisis 
arrived when in September, 1873, 
banks closed their doors, railway 
securities proved to have only a nomi¬ 
nal value, and for the succeeding five 
years financial clouds hung dark over 
the United States and incidentally 
over Canada, whose commercial re¬ 
vival had followed that of the United 
States, only to recede again with the 
depression in that country. 

That Canada had been hard hit during 
this time may be judged from the fact 
as seen in the table of immigration in 
the Appendix, which shows that in 1881, 
132,653 immigrants left Canada while 
only 47,991 came in. The agricultural 
depression which paralleled that in 
the United States during the seventies 
became the occasion for a political 
propaganda in which the idea was 
put forth of a national policy, which 
was to protect the interests of the 
5,000,000 odd people of Canada against 
the enormous population engaged in 
the same industries to the south. 
It was successful, and after the elections 
of 1878 what is known as the National 
Policy was adopted to encourage 
manufactures through the imposition 
of a tariff of some 33 per cent. 

Remarkable effects, which may be 
fairly ascribed to this legislation, may 
be seen in the table of exports found 
in the Appendix; but it may be stated 


that while in the year 1873 the total 
trade per capita was $57.57, it fell 
in 1881 to $43 and was as low as $41 in 
1895. It is true that immigration of 
Canadians to Manitoba had been 
going on gradually from 1871 to 1886 
when the Canadian Pacific Railway 
was completed, after which the public 
were assured immigration would begin 
to rush in as rapidly as it had been 
doing for so many years into the 
western states. But a government 
was in power elected to bolster up the 
privileges of a protected few. They 
granted subsidies to the railway in 
large amounts, yet failed to supplement 
this progressive step by land laws, 
which would be likely to encourage 
immigration. For several years at 
the initiation of the railway building 
dozens of land companies were given 
charters, so long as it was understood 
that they would support the policy 
of the Government, without any ade¬ 
quate guarantee that their promises 
to bring in immigrants would be made 
good. In this way many millions 
of acres of public lands were alienated 
for mere speculation, while proper 
land settlement was made difficult 
by the fact that alternate sections of 
land along the railway had been al¬ 
lotted to the railway authorities and 
continuous settlement there on home¬ 
steads was not possible. 

'Effects Political and Social 

Such is a brief summary of a century 
of immigration, during which with a 
certain sprinkling of German immi¬ 
grants, whether from Germany direct 
or indirectly from the United States, 
Canada had been peopled almost 
wholly by immigrants from Great 
Britain. They brought with them 
their social customs, their religious 
and their political affiliations, the latter 
being sedulously cultivated by the 
two political parties in Canada. These 


The Immigrant Settler 


39 


were in large measure retained by 
the immigrants in their new home; 
the voluntary Scotch churchmen and 
less often the dissenting English church¬ 
men found themselves in the ranks of 
the Reformers, while the Scotch and 
English Established churchmen re¬ 
mained Conservatives. The Ulster 
Irishman remained true to his Orange 
Lodge and Conservatism in politics 
under almost all circumstances, while 
the south countrymen tended rather 
to the opposite party. But with the 
growth of urban populations, which 
began especially after 1880, while the 
rural population declined, the curious 
phenomenon was observed of English 
radicals, members of Labor Unions 
in a free trade country, passing very 
generally into the ranks of the Pro¬ 
tectionists in Canadian cities, where 
they were led to believe that their 
welfare was directly associated with 
the high tariff policy. 

Such in general outline was the 
political and social situation when the 
so-called Liberal Government came 
into power in 1896. Almost twenty 
years had passed, the ratio of increase 
in population during the preceding 
two decades had declined below that 
of a normal increase of births over 
deaths, since while it was 17.23 per 
cent between 1871 and 1881 it fell 
in 1881-91 to 11.7 per cent and in 
1891-1901 to 11.1 per cent. Reasons 
already given such as lack of fertile 
free-grant lands in Ontario before the 
Canadian Pacific Railway was built, 
the tremendous drift of population 
both Eastern American, Canadian 
and European toward the prairies of 
the northwestern states from 1880 
to 1900, and the low prices of all farm 
products owing to the enormous pro¬ 
duction in these new states all helped 
to explain this decline in Canada’s 
population. But the extremely bad 
land policy of the Canadian Govern¬ 


ment, high freight rates from the 
new districts in the Northwest, added 
to the uncertainties of a cold northern 
climate, served together to discourage 
those settlers, who had gone in to the 
extent that British immigration had 
almost ceased by 1900. Indeed the 
total population of the three North¬ 
west Territories had grown from 25,778 
in 1881 to only 319,000 in 1900. 

Expansion of Canadian Northwest 

(7) But it was impossible that a 
magnificent extent of country, with its 
splendid possibilities such as the Ca¬ 
nadian Northwest, should continue 
to remain undeveloped where occupied 
by free-born Canadians. Manitoba’s 
school question had brought that 
province in 1891 into political promi¬ 
nence; the pioneers of the West, ac¬ 
customed to meet and overcome diffi¬ 
culties, were as positive in asserting 
their rights to educational self-govern¬ 
ment as they were in opposing op¬ 
pressive freight rates and bad land laws. 
So it happened that after the change 
of government in 1896, a leader in these 
w^estern political agitations came to 
be appointed Minister of the Interior 
in the new Laurier Liberal Govern¬ 
ment, which had succeeded in its 
struggle for provincial educational 
autonomy in Manitoba. Long a set¬ 
tler in the West, he knew the needs 
of the country at first hand, appreci¬ 
ated the real difficulties of the western 
problems and was determined to over¬ 
come them. He formulated and gained 
the approval of the Government, of 
the Steamship and Railway Trans¬ 
portation Companies for a new im¬ 
migration policy. Commissioners of 
immigration were appointed both in 
the United States and in Great Britain 
and the continent, who directed a 
government propaganda in the several 
countries and cooperated with all 
approved immigration agencies, en- 


40 


The Annals of the American Academy 


gaged in obtaining immigrants for 
Canada. 

What the results were may be seen 
in the Appendix to this article. The 
first most notable results were obtained 
in the northwestern states. Great 
colonization companies there had been 
engaged in filling up these districts 
during the previous twenty years and, 
their work largely ended, they were 
now encouraged to carry on their 
operations in bringing American set¬ 
tlers to Canada. Amongst other ac¬ 
tivities perhaps the greatest was that 
of the Saskatchewan Land Company, 
which proved remarkably successful 
in filling up the cheap land of its two 
million acres largely with American 
settlers. Early operations on the con¬ 
tinent of Europe were begun in 1898 
and from this time a stream of Ruthe- 
nian agriculturists from the Austrian 
provinces of Galicia and Bukovinia, 
on the wooded slopes of the Carpathi¬ 
ans, began to pour into Canada and 
ceased only with the war in 1914. 
These Slavic immigrants were sup¬ 
plemented by others both from Poland 
and southern Russia, while Finland 
and Scandinavia even sent their smaller 
quotas. It was a fortunate occurrence 
that Canadian soldiers met English 
Tommies in South Africa during the 
war there and told of the great unde¬ 
veloped Canadian West; while after 
the war these returned soldiers were 
to again hear in Britain from agents 
in every town and village of the great 
Canadian prairie lands still awaiting 
settlement. 

Outcome of Immigration Policy 

(8) The outcome of this well-directed 
immigration policy is to be found in 
the immigration returns of the next 
fourteen years, which show that be¬ 
tween 1900 and 1913 inclusive Canada 
received the following immigrants: 


United Kingdom. 973,730 

United States. 871,129 

Continent of Europe. 656,285 


or a total immigration in thirteen 
years of 2,521,144, or almost 50 per 
cent added to the population of 1901. 
That a large proportion of this im¬ 
migration proceeded to the Northwest 
is seen in the fact that the population 
of the Prairie Provinces, which was 
419,542 in 1901 was 1,278,708 in 1916; 
while from 1897 to 1920 there were 
528,006 homestead entries there, and 
the wheat production of Saskatchewan 
had increased even in 1910 from 5 
per cent to 55 per cent of the total 
produced in Canada. During the 
period of 1901 to the war in 1914 rail¬ 
way development in the West had gone 
on in keeping with the tremendous 
immigration to that territory. The 
total railway mileage in Canada of 
18,000 in 1901 increased by 1917 to 
36,604. Both from a political, eco¬ 
nomic and social standpoint this tre¬ 
mendous development of railway build¬ 
ing had most important results, as 
had been seen during the previous 
forty years in the United States. 
With every great railway expansion 
there had gone on an equally great 
speculation in land values, owing to 
the system of establishing boom towns 
during such railway building. Exactly 
the same state of affairs followed rail¬ 
way construction in Canada. It is 
difficult today in view of all the facts 
to speak with indifference of the orgy 
in land speculation, which went on 
from 1901 to 1914 in Canada. It was 
promoted by politicians from senators 
to the ordinary members of Parlia¬ 
ment, and the savings of widows 
and housemaids were indiscriminately 
drawn upon by the seductive influ¬ 
ences of the universal land agent. 
Even college professors and church 
divines indulged in the Get-Rich- 





The Immigrant Settler 


41 


Quick dissipation, and no government, 
federal, provincial or municipal, made 
any serious effort to regulate or pre¬ 
vent the debauch, which had its inevi¬ 
table result in the final erash of the 
land boom in 1913, even though 
400,000 immigrants had landed in 
that year. 

Effects of Immigration 

(9) It is perhaps idle to moralize on 
the effects of such a continued period 
of land speculation as went on during 
the fourteen years; but it is certain 
that nothing that could have occurred 
in Canada could have more seriously 
affected the general moral tone and 
social development of the whole people 
than this has done. It was inevitable 
that the population of Canada com¬ 
posed in 1900 mostly of people be¬ 
longing to the two old stocks of British 
and French, which had been present 
at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, should be seriously influenced 
by such a wave of immigration in all 
that relates to its material and po¬ 
litical development. It has meant 
that in almost a single decade Canada 
had to absorb and assimilate a popula¬ 
tion almost equal to 50 per cent of 
that in 1901. With regard to the 
rather larger number of those from 
Great Britain than from other coun¬ 
tries it may be said that this enormous 
number of persons, largely from urban 
centers, has given a definite tone to 
the social life^ and to some degree the 
thought of our Canadian cities, which 
have increased by over 100 per 
cent during this period. They have 
brought certain positive social and 
cultural qualities to the advantage 
of our Canadian life. Thus they had 
grown up in an old country having a 
tradition of law and government the 
same as our own, and had for genera¬ 
tions cultivated a respect for law and 
social conventions probably greater 


than even Canadians had. They 
spoke the same language, and the 
educated elass perhaps on the whole 
spoke it better. They brought with 
them a certain traditional culture, 
which has promoted in Canadians 
a better appreciation of art, music and 
literature; but along with these valua¬ 
ble qualities they increased what had 
already been growing up too rapidly 
amongst ourselves, the tendency of 
the people to crowd into the cities, 
which has resulted in the enormous 
urban increase already indieated. 

Increase in Urban Population 

During the boom years the urban pop¬ 
ulations in the many growing cities kept 
spreading outward, and an artificial 
prosperity followed when one year’s 
immigrants were kept busy building 
houses for the newcomers of the next. 
Prices of articles of consumption of 
every sort increased by at least 50 
per cent; house rentals were enor¬ 
mously advanced only to find when 
the crisis came, hundreds of thousands 
of persons in eities without anything 
to do. Hundreds even in the summer 
of 1914 were going to the City Halls for 
municipal charity, while the thousands 
who had been speculating in land 
margins were now forced to realize 
on their holdings and eould find no one 
with money to buy them. It has 
meant, in a word, that millions of 
money have been buried in thousands 
of acres of town lots, never to be 
resurrected, and with them the land 
gambler’s last hope and too often 
therewith his moral sense. 

This enormous inerease of urban 
population was distinctly a disappoint¬ 
ment to those who were endeavoring 
to develop the great agricultural and 
other natural resources of Canada, 
since such urban immigrants are in a 
sense only middlemen and as such 
are not in fact creators of wealth out 


42 


The Annals of the American Academy 


of the natural resources. Further 
than this, increasing urban populations 
make life more artificial and complex; 
while its effect upon the cost of living 
was most serious. Speaking generally, 
the cost of the chief items of living 
increased at least 50 per cent during 
this period of great immigration. 
The British artisan formed a large 
proportion of this urban immigration 
and in many respects has proved one 
of the most valuable immigrants to 
any country; but there is little doubt 
that the extreme development of 
trades unionism amongst them has 
added a diflBcult factor to the prob¬ 
lems of house building and city work 
generally through their insistence on 
an eight-hour day in industry. In 
provinces where the urban population 
is large, this is again reflected upon 
rural labor, which in some districts 
has made agricultural development 
come almost to a standstill, since with 
an increased cost of production there 
has been no similar increase in the cost 
of wheat, cattle and similar products. 

The American Immigrant 

(10) Turning to the American immi¬ 
grant of whom nearly one million came 
to Canada during the period it can only 
be said that from a material standpoint 
they have proved one of the greatest 
assets to Canada. It is a compliment 
to Canadians that these immigrants 
were composed largely of the children 
and neighbors of those who had left 
the Canadian homeland and gone to 
the United States. There they had 
learned the art of prairie farming, 
were industrious and moral, and when 
they came to Canada, they brought 
with them capital, energy and a trained 
intelligence, quickened in the environ¬ 
ment of western prairie life. Not only 
have these settlers proved splendid 
pioneers but they also have been 
optimists and propagandists of the 


virtues of their new-found country. 
It is true that in the early boom days 
some of them were amongst the most 
active in land speculation, but then 
who were not.^ The land grabber had 
his day and has largely disappeared; 
while the large proportion of agri¬ 
culturists amongst the settlers have 
proved a distinct acquisition to Can¬ 
ada. They have learned Canadian 
political methods and have found 
municipal institutions more stable 
even than their own, and during the 
war proved loyal to the land of their 
adoption. They have been prominent 
in provincial and community political 
life, so that each places in the front 
his own interests and welfare, and 
has rapidly become a part of all that 
pertains to Canadian national life. 

Continental Immigrants 

(11) The third class of continental 
immigrants, some two-thirds in number 
of those who came from Great Britain 
to Canada, have proved likewise an 
important factor in a development, 
especially of the Canadian Northwest. 
Being to the extent of 90 per cent 
agriculturists, they formed a larger 
proportion of the homesteaders than 
did either of the two other classes. 
They occupied by preference those 
prairies, which were more or less 
wooded in the northern part of the 
territory and have proved industrious, 
law-abiding and careful to respect and 
obey the provincial and municipal 
authorities under whom they have 
been placed. Wherever such people 
have seemed to be objectionable, 
it has been in those cases where a 
simple rural people, uneducated in 
urban life, have come to settle in the 
suburbs of the larger cities and in 
contact with its complexities, distrac¬ 
tions and temptations. But a single 
generation under the influence of 
modern educational institutions has 


The Immigrant Settler 


43 


already made them in many ways into 
good Canadians, and to them Canada 
and especially Saskatchewan owe the 
splendid development of agriculture, 
which has resulted in a wheat crop of 
some 400,000,000 bushels in 1922. 

That the enormously rapid develop¬ 
ment of Canada, due to this immigra¬ 
tion, should have created in the great 
growth of cities opportunities for a 
sudden and rapid accumulation of 
wealth was perhaps inevitable; and 
that this has stimulated an artificial 
society in many respects undesirable 
can scarcely be doubted. Many per¬ 
sons whose previous education and 


training had been indifferent were 
foisted suddenly into responsible posi¬ 
tions in society, which they have been 
scarcely able to support either in its 
privileges or responsibilities. But 
taken as a whole, with all the imper¬ 
fections attaching to the conditions 
which have been herein outlined, 
it must be said with a full sense of all 
that is implied, that nowhere possibly 
during the past twenty years has 
there been developed a national life, 
based upon more enduring ethical 
principles or a nation more ready or 
more capable of assuming its highest 
responsibilities. 


APPENDIX A 

Value of Foreign Trade of Canada Per Capita 


1868 

1873 

1880 

1885 

1890 

1895 


$35.53 1900. $66.84 

57.37 1905. 75.61 

36.05 1910. 96.65 

41.19 1914. 139.02 

42.98 1915. 115.65 

41.71 1918. 296.60 


APPENDIX B 

Immigrants Settling in Canada from 1867 to 1920 


1867. 

1870. 

1873. 

1876. 

1880. 

1883. 

.14,666 

.24,706 

.50,050 

.25,633 

.38,505 

.133,624 

.69,152 

1907 . 

1908 . 

1909 . 

1910. .-.. 

1911 . 

1912 . 

1913 . 

.124,667 

.262,460 

.146,908 

.208,794 

.311,084 

.354,237 

.402,432 

1 fion 

.75,067 

1914. 

.384,878 

1 QQfi 

.18,790 

1915. 

.144,789 


.16,835 

1916. 

.48,537 

1 ono 

.23,895 

1917. 

.75,374 

1 00*? 

.128,364 

1918.. 

.79,074 

1 QOA 

.130,331 

1919. 

.57,702 


.146,266 

1920. 

.. .117,336 

1906. 

.189,064 













































44 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 


The Annals of the American Academy 

APPENDIX C 

Total Homestead Entries from 1900 to 1920 


.7,426 1911.44,479 

.8,167 1912.39,151 

14,673 1913.33,699 

31,383 1914.31,829 

26,073 1915.24,088 

30,819 1916.17,030 

41,869 1917.11,199 

21,647 1918. 8,319 

30,424 1919.4,227 

39,081 1920.6,732 

41,568 























The Canadianization of the Immigrant Settler 

By J. H. Haslam 

President Saskatchewan Land Settlement Association, Regina 


I N the consideration of this or any 
subject involving social problems in 
Canada it must be borne in mind that 
Canada is not an homogenous country. 
Both the language, ideals, and culture 
of British and French civilization 
prevail. This is true in the Maritime 
Provinces and Lower Canada, or what 
is now known as Quebec. This does 
not mean that the best of good feeling 
does not prevail among the different 
races in these provinces or that any 
of them are any the less attached to 
the true Canadian idea of nationhood 
and the idea of the British Common¬ 
wealth of Free Nations. In fact in 
the Maritime Provinces none are more 
prosperous and progressive than the 
descendents of the original French or 
Acadian Settler. They are good citi¬ 
zens whether judged politically, so¬ 
cially or commercially. In fact the 
French-Acadian farmer has perhaps 
made more marked progress during 
the last few years than his English 
fellow-citizen. This was scarcely true 
until the last few years. In the Mari¬ 
time Provinces, however, the British 
note prevails. The French are learn¬ 
ing English and speak it well; but the 
English do not as a rule speak French. 
The French retain, however, their 
conservative ideas. They are more 
frugal and thrifty than the English, 
more attached to the soil and have 
larger families. They are consequently 
displacing their English-speaking 
neighbors and those on the outskirts 
of the settlements where they are 
in the majority. This may not be a 
condition of affairs that is welcome to 
the Anglophile, but from a national 
standpoint it is hard to see where any 
harm can come. 


The French in Quebec 

The same tendency can be observed 
in Quebec where the French are in 
an ever-increasing ascendency. The 
eastern townships a generation ago 
were largely peopled by descendents 
of early English settlers, many of 
them United Empire Loyalists. By 
what is known as peaceful penetration 
they are now becoming French. The 
French Canadian families are larger; 
the people are more attached to the 
soil and consequently they are gradu¬ 
ally entering into the land to possess 
it. In Quebec, however, unlike the 
Maritime Provinces, the French is 
the prevailing note. French culture, 
French characteristics, large families, 
thrift, frugality and industry have 
established on the somewhat reluctant 
soil of the province the most prosperous 
people in Canada. 

Although commonly supposed to 
be ultra-conservative—and they are 
so in religious and political matters 
and in the relations of the employer 
and employed—in economic matters 
they are the most advanced. There 
are more cooperative societies both 
for production, marketing and credit 
than in any province of Canada. 
This presumably through the in¬ 
fluence of the Catholic Church, 
which has introduced the coopera¬ 
tive idea from France, Italy and 
other European countries, where it 
has sponsored cooperation to the 
great benefit of the people. The 
population of Quebec has increased 
much faster than that of the other 
Eastern Provinces, and is now in¬ 
creasing faster than any of the prov¬ 
inces of Canada. The emigration 


45 



46 


The Annals of the American Academy 


from Quebec has been largely to the 
New England States, although there 
has been latterly considerable settle¬ 
ment in the Western Provinces. The 
French are overflowing in considerable 
numbers to the eastern counties of 
Ontario and are crowding out the 
English-speaking settler, as in the 
eastern townships adjoining Vermont. 
There is great respect in Quebec for 
the rights of the minority and of late 
years there has been little trouble 
between the races over either racial 
or religious questions, although dur¬ 
ing the war there was much friction 
over conscription. Although Quebec 
is French it is none the less Cana¬ 
dian. 

The dominant note in Ontario is 
an aggressive Anglo-Saxon sentiment 
which seems to be growing stronger 
during the last decade. This perhaps 
is reaction from the evergrowing French 
population and influence of the eastern 
border. The Loyalist ancestry may 
have much to do with this sentiment. 
The rural population of this province 
is not growing. The families are 
every year becoming smaller and show¬ 
ing a tendency to enter industry and 
to drift into the cities which have made 
large increases in population during 
the past few years. Until the last 
twenty years the Western Provinces 
were largely settled from Ontario. 
There was very meager settlement 
from Europe and that in a few lo¬ 
calities in Manitoba, principally Men- 
nonites and Icelanders, who had no 
influence on the public policy of the 
country. So Canadianization as it 
applies to Western Canada may be 
interpreted as a very aggressive pro- 
Anglo-Saxon attitude such as would 
prevail in Ontario if that province 
were opening up vast areas of virgin 
land and attracting new immigrants 
of many nations and kindreds and 
tongues. 


The Mennonites in Canada 

Since the late nineties there has been 
a large immigration from Europe and 
this prevailed up to the commencement 
of the war. In no country in any 
period of its agricultural development 
have so many acres been brought under 
the plow as in Western Canada during 
this period, and this growth was largely 
because of the foreign settler. The 
settlement of foreigners in Western 
Canada commenced in 1873 when a 
colony of Mennonites were induced 
to come from Russia by the Canadian 
Government. They were then, and 
many of them are yet, very strict 
in their religious opinions and observ¬ 
ances. They are purely agricultural 
and are very skillful-in the practice 
of husbandry. It is said that the 
richest agricultural county in the 
United States, and perhaps in the 
world, is Lancaster County, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, which is mainly occupied by 
Mennonite farmers. 

They went to Russia some hundred 
years before this on the invitation 
of Catherine the Great, who guaranteed 
them against persecution, for they had 
been subject to persecution and mar¬ 
tyrdom in Switzerland, Holland and 
Germany. She gave them exemp¬ 
tion from military service, for one 
of the strongest tenets of their be¬ 
lief is “Thou shalt not kill.’' They 
could practice their religion and cus¬ 
toms as they saw fit without interfer¬ 
ence, and speak their own language, 
which is German; and, since their at¬ 
tachment to their language is as 
tenacious as to their religion, they 
were well content. This compact was 
well observed by the Russian authori¬ 
ties until about 1868 when they were 
notified that they would be expected 
to serve in the army at the end of ten 
years. They decided to leave Russia 
in a body. They were located in one of 


The Canadianization of the Immigrant Settler 


47 


the most fertile farming districts in the 
world in the Black Belt of southern 
Russia, with a comparatively mild 
climate. They hesitated about coming 
to Canada on account of the severity 
of the climate and for the reason that 
they could not grow many things that 
they were used to in Russia. They 
were, however, finally induced to 
come, and a large colony settled in 
Southern ^Manitoba in the richest 
part of the Red River Valley. 

They were given a letter signed by 
J. P. M. Lowe, Secretary of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, which had fifteen 
clauses, one of which gave “an entire 
exemption from any military service,” 
and another clause read as follows: 

The fullest privilege of exercising their 
religious principles is by law afforded to 
the Mennonites without any kind of 
molestation or restriction whatever and 
the same privilege extends to the education 
of their children in schools. 

The Mennonites interpreted this 
letter and the Order-in-Council, giving 
it validity as a solemn compact—a sort 
of Magna Charta. Until a few years 
ago the bargain as interpreted by the 
Mennonites was carried out to the 
letter by the authorities of Manitoba 
and Saskatchewan, to which latter 
province several large colonies of 
Mennonites subsequently moved from 
the original colony. 

They were unmolested and carried 
on their affairs in their own way and 
kept very much to themselves. They 
became very prosperous, and the 
process of assimilation into the po¬ 
litical and social life of the country 
was going on satisfactorily—albeit 
slowly. Under a new government 
in Manitoba a policy was adopted of 
hastening the process. They were 
ordered to attend the public schools, 
learn English and support the new 
schools in addition to their own. This 
policy was also partially adopted in 


Saskatchewan. The result has been 
very disastrous. The Mennonites, 
true to their history, have refused to 
abandon their historic principles and 
are leaving Canada in large numbers, 
some to jNIexico and some to South 
America. It will take several years 
for the movement to become com¬ 
plete, because they move gradually— 
but Western Canada has lost the 
Mennonites. 

Many think that if the old policy 
had continued the Mennonites would 
in Western Canada, as in Eastern 
Canada and the United States, gradu¬ 
ally have adopted our methods of 
living and merged into our civilization. 
One thing is certain. They are 
among our best producers. 

Arrival of the Icelanders 

The Icelanders came to Canada 
about ten years later and settled 
around the shores of Lake Winnipeg. 
They had been fisher folk in the Father- 
land. The movement made a great 
drain on the population of the home¬ 
land. The Icelanders have merged 
into our Canadian civilization very 
quickly. They are very ambitious 
and are natural politicians, several 
of them having become members of 
the legislature. They were very loyal 
to our cause during the war and made 
great sacrifices. If taking on our 
works and ways quickly is the best 
test of a settler’s worth, then the Ice¬ 
lander has been a model settler. Not¬ 
withstanding that there are many 
highly prosperous Icelandic farmers 
in our Western Provinces of Canada, 
it is true that the Icelanders have not 
the same attachment to the soil as 
have other races who have migrated 
to Western Canada. 

Arrivals from the United States 

About 1900 the movement of settlers 
from the United States to Canada 


48 


The Annals of the American Academy 


commenced and reached its peak about 
1910. The first arrivals were returning 
Canadians, and then followed a rush 
of people from the middle western 
states—the latter of no distinct type, 
descendents of Scandinavian and Ger¬ 
man settlers principally; but every 
race was represented including many 
of British origin. There never has 
been any question as to the assimilation 
of these people into our civilization. 
They had been through the melting 
pot, and, of course, purified in the 
process. Yet the most disloyal people 
we had to deal with in the war were 
some descendents of Germans who 
came to the Canadian West from 
Nebraska. They were Canadianized, 
but they could not forget their German 
ancestry. It may be said in passing 
that one cannot detect any difference 
in a Dakota, Minnesota or Montana 
village or town when one crosses the 
line from Manitoba, Saskatchewan or 
Alberta. The people of each country 
pass the boundary and repass without 
passport or hindrance. In fact, we 
copy the methods of our neighbors 
in many things. Our magazines and 
other periodical literature are largely 
of United States origin. 

The Ruthenian and His Important 

Role 

The most important foreign element 
in Canada’s new population is the 
Ruthenian who came from old Aus¬ 
trian Poland and the surrounding 
districts in Russia and Roumania. 
They were attracted by the free home¬ 
steads and the high wages that were 
paid by the railway builders of the 
period. They came from oppression 
and the direst poverty. They were 
ignorant and gullible. They settled 
on land that the Canadian and Ameri¬ 
can settler would not take. It was 
rough, stony and had much brush, but 
there was plenty of hay and water. 


These people have made remarkable 
progress. Everybody works. They 
were peasants in Europe. They know 
the soil and love their farms; and while 
not such skilled husbandmen as the 
Mennonites, they soon learned our 
methods which, after all, are simple 
and somewhat crude. They prize 
their Canadian citizenship very highly. 
It was given to them after three years’ 
residence and when they got the 
j)atents for their homesteads. 

With their simplicity they have 
great pride and satisfaction in their 
new status. Thousands of their young 
men volunteered for the war. They 
had some difficulty in getting accepted. 
Their Canadian citizenship was ignored 
and they were treated as of alien ene¬ 
my origin. It seems to be true that 
education does not make a man more 
proud of his origin or race. That is 
primal and it is scarcely competent 
for anyone to say that it is not a 
reasonable and natural feeling. The 
Ruthenian wants to learn the English 
language, he wants to become a good 
Canadian citizen. This is particularly 
true of those that are Canadian-born. 
But they also want to retain and to 
learn their own language and literature 
and this, too, seems reasonable and 
natural. There are about 250,000 
of- them in Western Canada, and 
among a large number of them in 
remote settlements as yet the process 
of assimilation has hardly begun. But 
that will come. It requires patience 
and toleration. The children are very 
quick to learn. They resent any at¬ 
tempt at forcing, and there is no doubt 
that there is a feeling of resent¬ 
ment in some quarters among the' 
Ruthenians at the attempt to force 
the English language on them to the 
exclusion of their own in the schools— 
’twas ever thus. 

Those who live in the cities become 
assimilated and learn the English 


The Canadianization of the Immigrant Settler 


49 


language and customs much sooner. 
But it is on the farms we want them. 
It has been wisely said that anyone 
makes a good settler who lives on and 
cultivates the land. The old idea of 
a generous tolerance to the immigrant 
seems to have produced the best re¬ 
sults. There were many Russian- 
German Catholic colonies established 
near Regina about 35 years ago. The 
colonies are now breaking up and the 
younger generation are becoming good 
Canadians. They have good English 
schools and take great pride in them. 
Some of them have intermarried with 
Canadians. They are very prosperous 
and have as a rule large families. 

Conclusions 

On the whole the foreign immigrant 
has given Canada very little trouble. 
He has received no favors, but has had 


to make his way through sweat and 
toil. He will eventually merge com¬ 
pletely into our civilization and help 
to build what, as time goes on, will 
be a Canadian race. 

It was of just such diverse elements 
that the Anglo-Saxon race was built up. 

Saxon and Norman and Dane are we 

Teuton or Celt or whatever we be. 

The process takes time. It cannot 
be forced. The United States is now 
an Anglo-Saxon country and has be¬ 
come so with a comparatively small 
original British stock. 

The absorbing and assimilating qual¬ 
ity of the Anglo-Saxon race is its out¬ 
standing characteristic. It is so be¬ 
cause it has never tried to impose its 
ideas with the big stick. It is plainly 
the right policy for Canada to adopt 
in its treatment of the immigrant. 


5 


Oriental Immigration 

By T. H. Boggs, M.A., Ph.D. 

Professor of Political Economy, University of British Columbia 


T he question of oriental immigra¬ 
tion commands the instant at¬ 
tention of the people of British Colum¬ 
bia. It lies close to the interest if not 
the heart of the inhabitants of this 
Pacific community of the Dominion. 
It is, however, enveloped in so thick 
a mist of dubious evidence and opinion 
that it is difficult oftentimes to as¬ 
certain the true merits of the case. 
It is not always easy to unmask preju¬ 
dice and the promptings of political 
expediency. 

In undertaking this brief survey 
of Asiatic immigration into Canada, 
a three-fold endeavor will be made to 
explain why the question has become 
so urgent an issue, to point out certain 
of the peculiar difficulties which beset 
the path that may lead toward a solu¬ 
tion of the case, and to suggest a 
remedial course of action to the con¬ 
sideration of the various parties in¬ 
volved. 

Restriction of Asiatic 
Immigration 

British Columbia as a whole does 
not welcome Asiatic immigration; in¬ 
deed, latterly there has been abundant 
evidence to show that a great majority 
in the province strongly favor exclusion 
of laborers, at least, from the Orient. 
There are no doubt a few who believe 
in a policy of non-restriction. Some, 
moreover, believe in a limited immigra¬ 
tion to serve industrial ends. That 
the overwhelmingly preponderant opin¬ 
ion is favorable to some form of rigid 
restriction may be presumed from 
the widespread popular concurrence 
in two resolutions recently passed 
in the provincial legislature. It may 


be of interest to note that the first 
measure passed unanimously and that 
the second, after an ineffectual at¬ 
tempt at an amendment, likewise 
received unanimous assent. The main 
resolutions, stripped of their pre¬ 
amble, appear, respectively under date 
of November 20th, and December 
5th, as follows: ^ 

Therefore be it Resolved, That this 
Legislative Assembly places itself on record 
as being in favour of the enactment of 
such amendment to the “Immigration 
Act” of Canada as is necessary to com¬ 
pletely prohibit Asiatic immigration into 
Canada. 

Therefore be it Resolved, That the 
Government of the Dominion of Canada 
be petitioned to grant its assent and accord 
its active assistance to the obtaining of 
an amendment to the “British North 
America Act,” giving the province of 
British Columbia, at present most affected, 
the power to make laws prohibiting Asi¬ 
atics from acquiring proprietary interest, in 
any form whatsoever,* in agricultural lands 
in British Columbia, in the timber lands of 
British Columbia, in the mineral lands 
of British Columbia, or in the fishing or 
other industrial enterprises carried on 
within the province of British Columbia, 
and from obtaining employment in any 
of the above-mentioned industries. 

And be it further Resolved, That the 
Government of the Dominion of Canada 
be respectfully requested to grant adherence 
on the part of Canada to no treaty or bind¬ 
ing international obligation in any form 
whatsoever having the effect of limiting 
the authority of Provincial Legislatures 
as set out by the terms of this Resolution. 

^ Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative 
Assembly of British Columbia, Nos. 15, 34, and 
35, Session 1922. 


50 


Oriental Immigration 


51 


Additional evidence, indicative of 
popular feeling on the Pacific coast, 
appears in the fact that the representa¬ 
tives of British Columbia in the Do¬ 
minion House of Commons, irrespec¬ 
tive of party, vigorously urged, in the 
course of a debate on May 8, 1922, 
the future exclusion of Oriental im¬ 
migrants. 

Reasons for Opposition 

In attempting to explain the very 
widespread sentiment throughout the 
province, favoring drastic restriction, 
the opinion may be ventured that 
the question is essentially not one of 
theoretic race equality, but rather of 
practical administration. The reasons 
which underlie both the opposition 
to Asiatic immigration and the im¬ 
perious emergence of the question 
as a burning issue may be regarded as 
two-fold in their nature. There are 
considerations which directly impinge 
upon the immediate convenience or 
welfare of certain groups in the com¬ 
munity. There are other factors, re¬ 
lated it is true to the foregoing, which 
make an appeal to perhaps a wider 
circle, affecting as they do the ultimate 
destiny of the province, if not indeed 
the Dominion as a whole. 

Prominent among the first variety 


of objections to the Asiatic is the claim 
that on account of his lower standard 
of living he can and does underbid the 
white laborer. Owing to the less 
expensive household economy of the 
Oriental laborer, and because of his 
willingness to accept less comfortable 
conditions of work, it is urged that 
his competition must undermine the 
relatively more advantageous position 
enjoyed by the Canadian workman. 
The reaction against the competition 
of cheap labor is entirely natural and 
is not without cause. 

Immigration at bottom involves a 
conflict of standards. If the disparity 
between the standards of two countries 
be marked, the immigration “urge” 
toward the higher standard country 
will be intensified. And this almost 
certainly will be accompanied by a 
correspondingly heightened reaction. 
Doubtless through no fault of their 
own, the peoples of eastern Asia have 
a low standard of living. Accordingly 
a restriction of Asiatic immigration 
is imperative if the accepted standards 
on the Pacific coast are not to suffer. 
The fact that the Orientals as a class 
are industrious, law-abiding, and hon¬ 
est does not help the situation. 

The competition of the Oriental is 
felt in many directions—in the salmon 


Land Owned and Leased by Japanese and Chinese in British Columbia 



No. OF Owners or Lessees 

Total Acreage 

Land owned by Japanese. 

492 

116 

8,385.78 

5,664.61 

Land owned by Chinese. 

Total. 

608 

14,050.39 

Land leased by Japanese. 

103 

369 

1,781.26 

11,087.12 

Land leased by Chinese. 

T otal. ,. 

472 

12,868.38 

Orjinrl tnfn.l lands ownnd and leased. 

1,080 

26,918.77 




























52 


The Annals of the American Academy 


fishing industry, retail trade, the 
tailoring business, agriculture, etc. 
Such competition, in one direction, is 
revealing itself in the increasing quan¬ 
tity of land held by Orientals. In¬ 
stinctively perhaps it is looked upon 
as prophetic of the future, if rigid re¬ 
striction be not practised. From the 
table on page 51, it will be noted 
that by 1920 somewhat over 26,000 
acres in British Columbia were con¬ 
trolled by 1,080 Asiatics.^ 

Related closely to the question of 
Asiatic competition is the fact that 
the number of Orientals in British 
Columbia is increasing rapidly as a 
result both of continuing immigration 
and, among the Japanese at least, 
of the high average birth-rate. This 
question of numbers calls insistently 
for solution. For, as has been pointed 
out by Mr. John Nelson, an enlightened 
student of the problem, the Asiatic 
population of British Columbia, al¬ 
ready numbering from fifty to sixty 
thousand, forms approximately one- 
tenth of the total population of the 
province, and it is being constantly 
and rapidly increased by a sustained 
tide of immigration and high birth¬ 
rate. 

The Chinese 

The Chinese drifted north to British 
Columbia from California after 1849. 
They came later in considerable num¬ 
bers to build the Canadian Pacific 
Railway. Still later they entered do¬ 
mestic service, became truck farmers, 
and entered the laundry and gradually 
other lines of business. There are 
in Canada about 45,000 of them, of 
which number approximately 40,000 
are domiciled in the Pacific province. 
This movement has continued in the 
face of adverse legislation and a popular 
attitude which, in the main, has not 

2 Survey by Department of Agriculture of 
British Columbia, May 28, 1920. 


been hospitable. A head-tax of $50 
upon each individual of Chinese origin 
not belonging to the exempt classes 
was first imposed in 1885. In 1901 
the tax was increased to $100, and in 
1904 to $500. Generally speaking, 
the exempt classes are merchants and 
their families, diplomatic and con¬ 
sular oflficials, their families and suites, 
and teachers, students, and men of 
science. 

The Japanese 

The Japanese came later. Their 
immigration prior to 1900 was negligi¬ 
ble. Since that date, however, some 
21,000 have entered the country, most 
of them remaining in British Columbia. 
Following the arrival of 7,600 Japanese 
immigrants during the year 1908, an 
official inquiry was instituted into 
the reasons and general circumstances 
of the movement. In consequence, 
an understanding was reached with 
Japan whereby the Imperial Govern¬ 
ment of Japan undertook to limit the 
number of Japanese laborers going to 
Canada to 400 annually. It is often¬ 
times declared that the agreement has 
not been strictly observed by the 
Japanese Government, and that the 
number of Japanese immigrants, has 
generally been far in excess of the 
specified number. It must, however, 
be recognized that under the terms 
of the agreement laborers only were 
to be restricted in number. No men¬ 
tion was made of relatives of laborers. 
Moreover, Japanese who have once 
been admitted to Canada may reenter 
the country without affecting the as¬ 
signed quota. That the terms of the 
understanding between the two govern¬ 
ments have not been subject to viola¬ 
tion may be accepted in the light of 
the oflScial pronouncement of Hon. 
Mr. Calder, then Minister of Immigra¬ 
tion, in the House of Commons on 
April 29, 1919. “I have gone into 


Oriental Immigration 


53 


the situation very carefully,” Mr. 
Calder declared, “and I can tell the 
House that the agreement has been 
lived up to by the Japanese Govern¬ 
ment to the letter.” And, alluding to 
the same question, in the course of 
a debate in the federal House, on May 
8, 1922, the Prime Minister, the Hon. 
Mackenzie King, declared: 

I know of no reason to believe that the 
Japanese Government have not ever since 
[1919] been equally vigilant in living up 
to the terms of the agreement. 

Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese 
in the province reveal a rapid rate of 
natural increase. The number of fe¬ 
male immigrants of the Chinese race 
has been negligible, whereas during 
the three years, 1918-20, for example, 
almost 50 per cent of the Japanese 
immigrants were women. The reac¬ 
tion upon the birth rate may be judged 
from the fact that in eleven years it 
changed from 1 Japanese to every 
252 whites, to 1 in every 13. 

The East Indian 

The third Asiatic race involved in 
British Columbia’s Oriental problem 
is the East Indian, popularly known 
as the Hindu. The East Indian move¬ 
ment which began in 1905, quickly 
assumed large proportions, nearly 5,000 
entering Canada during the two years 
1907 and 1908. The tide was abruptly 
checked, however, in 1909, by bringing 
Indian immigration within the scope 
of Section 38 of the Immigration Act, 
which provides for the exclusion of 
immigrants who may come to Canada 
otherwise than by continuous journey 
from the countries of which they are 
natives or citizens, and upon through 
tickets purchased in those countries. 
The necessary transportation facilities 
are lacking and hence immigration from 
India is effectually controlled by this 


general regulation. The East Indians 
in Canada number about 5,000, prac¬ 
tically all of whom are on the Pacific 
Coast. 

It will not be necessary to do more 
than mention the second group of 
reasons underlying popular opposition 
to Asiatic immigration. These con¬ 
siderations, less directly affecting the 
everyday lives of the people, are 
related, however, to the foregoing 
ones which have received somewhat 
more attention. 

Necessity for Careful Immigration 
Restrictions 

Thus we are rightly enough re¬ 
minded that even a moderate degree 
of cultural assimilation, or personal 
adaptation to modes and standards 
of the adopted country, cannot take 
place unless immigration be narrowly 
restricted. It is to the interest of the 
Canadian people as well as to that of 
the Asiatic residents here that the 
latter should be culturally assimilated 
as early as possible into Canadian life 
in order to avoid “a government within 
a government.” To this end, owing 
to the wide divergence between the 
racial antecedents, political traditions, 
and social habitudes of the people of 
the Dominion and of the immigrants 
from the Orient, a rigid limitation of 
numbers is imperative. A policy of 
rigorous restriction is, moreover, called 
for on the ground that lasting benefit 
is not likely to accrue to either of the 
two groups of people unless harmonious 
relations prevail between them. A 
considerable immigration of Orientals 
will lead to disharmony, in conse¬ 
quence of which injustice will almost 
inevitably be visited upon the im¬ 
migrant. And, finally, restriction is 
urged by many through the fear that 
the very destiny of Western Canada 
must rest upon the decision that shall 
be reached on this issue. They prefer 


54 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the peaceable policy of restriction, 
drastic as it may be, to the dread 
spectre of open conflict at some future 
time. 

Certain Difficulties and Their 
Solution 

There are certain peculiar difficulties 
lying in the path which cannot be 
disregarded. But happily they are 
not beyond solution. In the first 
place the East Indian immigrant is of 
course no less a citizen of the British 
Empire than the Canadian himself. 
His exclusion from the Dominion, 
therefore, must have a bearing on 
imperial relationships. Fortunately, 
however, it is now conceded even 
by British Indian leaders that the 
Canadian people possess an unques¬ 
tioned right to determine the character 
of their population elements. In the 
second place, Japanese immigration 
into Canada involves Anglo-Japanese 
treaty relations.® Happily here, too, 
Canadian rights and powers are not 
narrowly limited. A further difficulty 
is presented in the entirely natural 
race pride of the peoples of eastern 
Asia in their ancient civilizations 
reaching back into antiquity. The 
solution effected must be in accord with 
the best traditions of international 
courtesy. Needless affront must not 
be offered to the legitimate pride of 
race of the Asiatic. This question on 
its reverse side reveals an additional 
difficulty. There is present in British 
Columbia, as likewise is the case in 
California, Australia, and Natal, a 
more or less deep-seated racial preju¬ 
dice against the colored races of Asia. 
Not a little of this prejudice is irrational 
and blindly jingoistic. The restrictive 
policy adopted should not be conceived 
in a spirit of exasperation or hysteria. 

^ See Treaty Series, 1911, No. 18. Agree¬ 
ment between the United Kingdom and Japan 
signed at London, July 13, 1911. 


Future Remedial Course of Action 

In venturing a remedial course of 
action for the future the writer would 
concede at once the necessity of rigid 
restriction of all Oriental immigration, 
even to the point of total future ex¬ 
clusion of all Asiatics, other than 
tourists, bona fide international traders 
and students in university or technical 
courses.^ However, such total future 
exclusion, in the opinion of the writer, 
should be accompanied by the con¬ 
ferment by the people of British Colum¬ 
bia of full rights of citizenship within 
the province upon all Orientals who 
become naturalized. If a policy of 
total exclusion for the future be 
adopted without the grant of citi¬ 
zenship privileges upon naturalized 
citizens, the future cannot fail to be 
productive of misunderstanding and 
mutual recriminations. Exclusion not 
expulsion is urged. Expulsion of those 
already here is utterly indefensible. 
Moreover a permanent denial of full 
citizenship privileges to naturalized 
Orientals cannot be justified on high 
grounds of justice nor on the dubious 
grounds of expediency. 

The Dominion Franchise Act is 
subject to such limitation in its opera¬ 
tion within any one province as may 
be imposed by the provincial franchise 
act of the province concerned. In 
Canadian provinces other than British 
Columbia, a naturalized Oriental en¬ 
joys the rights of a citizen, including 
the right to vote. In British Columbia, 
however, the voting privilege is denied. 

In support of the plea that full 
citizenship privileges should accom¬ 
pany naturalization, it may be pointed 
out that in Australia more than 1,200 
out of the 2,000 resident East Indians 

^On this point, see statements of Hon. H. H. 
Stevens, recent Dominion Minister of Trade and 
Commerce, on the floor of the House of Com¬ 
mons, Sessions of 1912-13 and 1922. 


Oriental Immigration 


55 


enjoy the franchise, and that 500 
Indians in New Zealand possess the 
same right. It may be added that 
the Hon. Mr. Sastri, a distinguished 
East Indian, has conceded the right 
of Canada to practice total exclusion. 
His request, therefore, that citizenship 
privileges be conferred through natu¬ 
ralization upon resident East Indians 
in Canada cannot be viewed as im¬ 
perilling the quality of Canadian 
standards or civilization. The general 
views of Mr. Sastri on this matter 


appear to be concurred in by many 
enlightened members of the Japanese 
and Chinese races resident in British 
Columbia. 

Finally it may be urged that the 
policy of denying voting rights per¬ 
manently to a considerable section 
of the population of one province of 
the Dominion can scarcely be deemed 
to be to the ultimate advantage of 
even the white people themselves. 
A democratic country cannot well be 
stratified either socially or racially. 


Canada’s Immigration Policy 

By Robert J. C. Stead 

Director of Publicity, Federal Department of Immigration and Colonization, Ottawa 


T he immigration policies of the 
Dominion of Canada have been, 
and are, of far-reaching interest and 
effect, not only to the people of the 
Dominion but also to the outside 
world. At no point, perhaps not even 
in the matter of international trade 
relationships, does Canada come in 
more intimate contact with her na¬ 
tional neighbors than in the framing 
and application of her immigration 
policies. When it is remembered that 
Canada, with one-sixteenth of the 
world’s land area and probably more 
than one-sixteenth of its natural re¬ 
sources, has as yet only about one- 
half of one per cent of the world’s 
population, the part which immi¬ 
gration is destined to play in the 
future development of the Domin¬ 
ion, and the reaction which it will 
have upon other countries, are some¬ 
what appreciated. 

Relation of Immigration 
Development 

Canada’s development has been, and 
is, inseparably interwoven with im¬ 
migration. All that Canada is today 
she is because of the immigrants who 
have come to her shores, and every 
citizen who does not trace his ancestry 
to the original natives, is either an im¬ 
migrant or the descendant of im¬ 
migrants. It has been by this flow of 
population from other lands that the 
development of Canada to its present 
status has been achieved. 

This development, up until about 
the beginning of the present century, 
was largely of an undirected character. 
Led by the spirit of adventure or the 
desire for self-betterment, individuals 


and groups migrated to Canada from 
portions of the United States, from 
most of the countries of Europe, but 
most particularly from the British 
Isles. Impetus was given to such 
movements from time to time by un- 
UvSual or artificial conditions, such as, 
for example, the state of affairs which 
prevailed in the new American Re¬ 
public at the close of the Revolution¬ 
ary War, when large numbers of 
Loyalists migrated to Nova Scotia, 
New Brunswick and portions of On¬ 
tario, and laid the foundations of what 
is now the most permanent Canadian 
stock of Anglo-Saxon ancestry, but for 
the most part the movements were 
small, detached and unorganized. To 
sketch in any detail the history of 
early immigration to Canada would be 
virtually to recount the history of the 
country from the discoveries of Cabot, 
Cartier and Champlain to modern 
times, but it is actually within the 
last fifty years that the greatest in¬ 
creases in Canada’s population have 
occurred. In 1871—four years after 
the consummation of Confederation 
and 331 years after the first attempt 
to plant a colony in Canada—the 
population of the entire country did 
not exceed 3,690,000. The increase 
in population during the decade 1871 
to 1881 w^as 635,000; during the 
decade from 1881 to 1891 it was 
508,000; and from 1891 to 1901 it was 
538,000. 

Ways and Means 

It was not until the first decade of 
the twentieth century—aptly de¬ 
scribed by Sir Wilfrid Laurier as Cana¬ 
da’s century—that the decennial re- 


56 


Canada^s Immigration Policy 


57 


turns showed an increase in population 
exceeding one million souls. This 
period also marks the adoption, or at 
least the fructification, of a vigorous 
and deliberate policy toward filling up 
the vacant spaces of Canada with 
human beings. The keystone of that 
policy was free land, but closely as¬ 
sociated with it was the rapid de¬ 
velopment which characterized the 
first dozen years of the new century. 
This development took many forms; 
it embraced the building of immense 
railway systems, elaborate irrigation 
enterprises, and young but ambitious 
cities. Labor was to be found for all, 
and the flood of population, while 
fundamentally dependent upon the 
settlement and development of the 
farm lands of the country, flowed in 
a considerable volume into railway 
camps, lumber woods, and the various 
channels for rough labor and artisans 
afforded by the rapidly growing cities 
and towns. 

The policy of granting free land to 
those who would undertake to live 


upon it and develop it was, of course, 
no new experiment. The first land in 
Western Canada granted under such 
a policy was filed upon on July 2, 1872 
—^just a half a century ago—^and the 
considerable degree of development 
which had occurred in Manitoba 
previous to the year 1900 was largely 
the outcome of that policy of free land 
for settlers. Closely associated with 
the free land grants was the practice 
established by the Canadian Pacific 
Railway and in a lesser degree by the 
Hudson’s Bay Company of selling the 
immense areas of land which had come 
into their possession by virtue of their 
agreements with the Government at 
prices so low and on terms so generous 
that it became a saying that in many 
cases the purchased lands were as 
cheap to the settler as those which 
were granted free. 

A glimpse in detail at the Canada- 
ward movement of population during 
the high tide period which met a 
sudden ebb with the outbreak of the 
Great War may prove of interest: 


Immigration to Canada from the Beginning of the Twentieth Century to the Outbreak 

OF THE Great War 



British 

From the 

U. S. A. 

Other 

Countries 

Totals 

Fiscal year ended June 30, 1901. 

11,810 

17,987 

19,352 

49,149 

“ “ 1902. 

17,259 

26,388 

23,732 

67,379 

“ “ 1903. 

41,792 

49,473 

37,099 

128,364 

“ “ 1904. 

50,374 

45,171 

34,786 

130,331 

“ “ 1905. 

65,359 

43,543 

37,364 

146,266 

“ “ 1906. 

86,796 

57,796 

44,472 

189,064 

Nine months ended March 31,1907. 

55,791 

34,659 

34,217 

124,667 

Fiscal year ended March 31, 1908. 

120,182 

58,312 

83,975 

262,469 

“ “ 1909. 

52,901 

59,832 

34,175 

146,908 

“ “ 1910. 

59,790 

103,798 

45,206 

208,794 

“ “ 1911. 

123,013 

121,451 

66,620 

311,084 

“ “ 1912. 

138,121 

133,710 

82,406 

354,237 

“ “ 1913. 

150,542 

139,009 

112,881 

402,432 

“ “ 1914. 

142,622 

107,530 

134,726 

384,878 

Total . 

1,116,352 

998,659 

791,011 

2,906,022 






































58 


The Annals of the American Academy 


The close association which existed 
between the movement of population 
and the issue of free lands is indicated 
by the following table showing the 
number of entries for homesteads 
during the same period. 

It will be noted that the homestead 
entries reached their peak in 1911 and 
the immigration movement two years 
later, in 1913. Two conclusions are 
suggested by this fact: First, that the 
accessible homestead lands were being 
exhausted, and second, that the wave 
of development which accompanied 
their settlement had increased the de¬ 
mands for non-agricultural immigrants 
until they represented a greater pro¬ 
portion of the whole than in the earlier 
stages of the movement. 

The Great War and Its Effect 

Indications that the wave of immi¬ 
gration had, for the time being at least, 
passed its crest, were not lacking in the 
latter part of 1913 and the earlier part 
of 1914, before the sudden outbreak 
of war interjected a new and unfore¬ 
seen factor. Immigration from the 
enemy countries was, of course, im¬ 
mediately and completely suspended, 
and from Great Britain and her Allies 
practically so, the movement from the 
United Kingdom dropping from 142,- 


622 in the year ended March 31, 1914, 
to 8,664 in the year ended March 31, 
1916. The movement from the United 
States was similarly, although not so 
seriously, affected, dropping in two 
years from 107,530 to 36,937. While 
the United States remained neutral, 
Canada, as a warring nation, was at 
an obvious disadvantage as a field for 
new settlers, and after the United 
States cast in its lot in the w^ar the 
magnitude of the preparations under¬ 
taken had a similar effect on immigra¬ 
tion returns. The lowest figures in 
Canada’s immigration since the be¬ 
ginning of the present century were 
touched in 1916, and from then until 
1920 the yearly arrivals were only 
about 25 per cent as numerous as dur¬ 
ing the years immediately preceding. 

Aftermath of the War 

Many opinions were held as to the 
probable trend of immigration events 
after the close of the war, and there 
was a general anticipation that the 
movement to Canada would again be 
very heavy, and probably exceed all 
previous records. This anticipation 
was not realized, for a number of 
reasons. Canada, in common with all 
other countries, experienced a share of 
the dislocation of business and the 


Table of Homestead Entries 


Fiscal year 1901. 

“ “ 1902. 

“ “ 1903. 

“ “ 1904. 

“ “ 1905. 

“ “ 1906.. 

Nine months ended March 31, 1907 

Fiscal year 1908. 

“ “ 1909. 

“ “ 1910. 

“ “ 1911.. 

“ “ 1912. 

“ “ 1913. 

“ “ 1914. 


8,167 

14,673 

31,383 

26,073 

30,819 

41,869 

21,647 

30,424 

39,081 

41,568 

44,479 

39,151 

33,699 

31,829 


434,862 


Total 




























Canada’s Immigration Policy 


59 


industrial uncertainties of the recon¬ 
struction period. 

The demobilization of the Canadian 
forces, coincident with the suspension 
of all war activities, brought about a 
surplus of labor in local markets which 
made it impracticable for the Canadian 
Department of Immigration and Colo¬ 
nization to extend inducements to the 
vast numbers of laborers available at 
that time as immigrants. The wel¬ 
fare of the country seemed to demand 
that, as a rule, only those should be 
admitted who were in a position to 
assist in developing its natural re¬ 
sources, chief among which is its 
fertile agricultural land. Farmers and 
farm laborers became more than ever 
the objective of the Department of 
Immigration and Colonization, and 
these classes, together with domestic 
workers, for whom there is a continual 
demand, are still the only classes being 
generally sought as immigrants. 

Other factors which contributed to 
the depression of immigration figures 
as compared with the period immedi¬ 
ately preceding the war were the high 
cost of ocean and land transportation 
and the balance of exchange against 
the capital of British and European 
immigrants, coupled with the generally 
impoverished condition of some of the 
countries which had formerly been 
contributors of immigrants, and to the 
fact that, although great areas of land 
were still available as free homesteads, 
they were now located for the most 
part at considerable distances from 
railways. The policy of the De¬ 
partment has been not to encourage 
settlement in localities likely to re¬ 
quire additional railway construction 
at an early date. 

Need for Restrictive and Selective 
Immigration 

During the same period there has 
been a growing popular sense that the 


immigration activities of the Dominion 
should be increasingly selective, and 
the policies of the Department have 
sought to conform to public opinion in 
this regard. The result is that there 
are two distinct and, in a sense, op¬ 
posite phases of Canadian immigration 
activity. One is restrictive, designed 
to prevent persons who are undesirable 
in themselves or who, although ac¬ 
ceptable in themselves, are for various 
reasons unable to become producing 
factors in Canada at the present time, 
from landing in the country. This 
may be described as the negative side 
of immigration work. On the other 
hand is the positive side—the side 
which is engaged in securing settlers 
of the type desired. 

A Means Towards Expansion 

In the light of the preceding para¬ 
graph it will be understood that the 
positive activities of the Canadian De¬ 
partment of Immigration and Colo¬ 
nization in other countries are limited 
to those from which a large percentage 
of desirable immigration may be ex¬ 
pected. The process of selection be¬ 
gins with selecting the country from 
which immigrants are to be sought 
and proceeds with the selection of the 
individual citizen of that country. 
The first step in this process is the 
creation of a desire on the part of that 
type of citizen likely to prove a good 
settler in Canada, to migrate to the 
Dominion. This is, broadly speak¬ 
ing, the publicity work of the Depart¬ 
ment. It is pursued by a number of 
means: 

by advertisements in papers circulating 
among the agricultural and domestic 
working classes; 

by exhibitions of Canadian agricultural 
products at the agricultural fairs; 
by lectures on Canadian agricultural 
conditions and opportunities, and 
by the generous distribution of 


60 


The Annals of the American Academy 


literature dealing with such op¬ 
portunities ; 

by motion pictures visualizing agri¬ 
cultural life in Canada; 
by articles in the press designed to 
promote a better understanding of 
Canadian conditions and, in some 
cases, a more sympathetic attitude 
toward Canada; 

and by such other means as prove 
available. 

A peculiar and far-reaching phase 
of this publicity work is an effort to 
make Canada better known to the 
school children of the United States 
and Great Britain. This is being ac¬ 
complished through supplying the 
schools with text books in which are 
maps of the Canadian provinces and 
pictures of Canadian scenes, and in 
which the truth about Canada is set 
forth in simple, straightforward lan¬ 
guage appropriate to the class room. 
The distribution of these text books 
runs as high as half a million copies in 
a year. They are supplied free to 
schools in the United Kingdom and the 
United States on the request of the 
school principals, and the demand is 
always greater than the financial re¬ 
sources of the Department will permit 
it to supply. This is long-range pub¬ 
licity work; it has to do with the rising 
generation, and its harvest may not be 
reaped for years, but it is spreading 
correct information about Canada and 
making the grotesque ideas concerning 
the Dominion which have so long pre¬ 
vailed among even well-informed Brit¬ 
ishers and Americans impossible in the 
rising generation. 

The Establishment of Immigration 

Offices 

Having created the desire on the 
part of the prospective immigrant to 
migrate to Canada, it becomes neees- 
sary to place at his disposal facilities 


for personal information and advice. 
For this reason immigration machinery 
consisting of some eighteen offices in 
the United States and twelve in the 
United Kingdom, with European of¬ 
fices at principal ports on the eonti- 
nent, has been established. At these 
agencies the prospective immigrant 
may learn further details about the 
country which cannot very well be set 
forth in the departmental publications; 
may inform himself as to the restric¬ 
tions applied to immigrants and the 
conditions to which he must conform; 
may obtain information and advice 
concerning the movement of himself, 
his family and his effects; and may be¬ 
gin to arrive at a conclusion as to the 
portion of Canada in which he will 
locate. If he belongs to the unac¬ 
ceptable classes he may also, through 
the medium of these agencies, spare 
himself the expense and disappoint¬ 
ment of an unfruitful trip to Canada. 
There is little occasion for any immi¬ 
grant experiencing the disappointment 
of being rejected at the port of entry 
in Canada if he has sought and been 
guided by the advice of the Canadian 
immigration officer in his native land. 

While it is impraeticable for Canada 
to completely select her immigrants at 
the point of origin, it being obviously 
impossible to place officers at every 
foreign seaport in the world to turn 
back immigrants at these ports, so far 
as Great Britain and Ireland are con¬ 
cerned the field is well covered, and the 
machinery is gradually being extended 
in Europe. The right is retained, in 
any case, to reject the immigrant at 
the Canadian port, but when it is re¬ 
membered that out of 74,262 immi¬ 
grants from the British Isles during 
the fiscal year ended March 31, 1921, 
it was necessary to reject at Canadian 
ports only 193 individuals—that is, one 
person rejected for every 385 who 
landed—it will be seen that the hard- 


Canada’s Immigration Policy 


61 


ships arising from rejection of these 
classes have been reduced, perhaps, as 
much as is humanly possible. 

Immigration Regulations 

The Canadian immigration regula¬ 
tions debar from Canada immigrants 
of the following classes: 

1. Idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded per¬ 
sons, epileptics, insane persons and 
persons who have been insane at any 
time previously. 

2. Persons afflicted with tuberculosis 
or with any contagious or infectious dis¬ 
ease. 

3. Persons who are dumb, blind, or 
otherwise physically defective, unless 
security is given against such becoming 
a public charge in Canada. 

4. Persons over 15 years of age who 
are unable to read. Exception is made 
in the case of certain relatives. 

5. Persons who are guilty of any crime 
involving moral turpitude; persons seek¬ 
ing entry to Canada for any immoral 
purpose. 

6. Professional beggars, vagrants, and 
persons liable to become a public charge. 

7. Persons suffering from chronic al¬ 
coholism or the drug habit, and persons 
of physical inferiority whose defect is 
likely to prevent them making their way 
in Canada. 

8. Anarchists, agitators and persons 
who disbelieve in or are opposed to 
organized government or who advocate 
the unlawful destruction of property. 

9. Persons who have been deported 
from Canada for any cause and persons 
who have been deported from any Brit¬ 
ish dominion or from any allied country 
on account of an offence committed in 
connection with the war. 

10. Immigrants who are nationals of 
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, 
or Turkey. 

Other restrictions also exist, or may 
be applied from time to time, par¬ 
ticulars of which may be obtained by 
any intending immigrant from the 
nearest Canadian Government agent. 


By an Order in Council at present 
(November, 1922) in effect the landing 
in Canada of any immigrant is pro¬ 
hibited except as hereinafter provided: 

The Immigration Officer in Charge 
may admit any immigrant who other¬ 
wise complies with the provisions of 
the Immigration Act, if it is shown to 
his satisfaction that such immigrant 
is,— 

1. A bona fide agriculturist entering 
Canada to farm and has sufficient means 
to begin farming in Canada. 

2. A bona fide farm laborer entering 
Canada to follow that occupation and has 
reasonable assurance of employment. 

3. A female domestic servant entering 
Canada to follow that occupation and 
has reasonable assurance of employment. 

And provided further that the Im¬ 
migration Officer in Charge may admit: 

(a) The wife and family of any persons 
legally admitted to and resident in 
Canada who is in a position to receive 
and care for his dependents. 

(b) The national of any country in 
regard to which there is in operation a 
special treaty or agreement or conven¬ 
tion regulating immigration. 

(c) Any British subject entering Can¬ 
ada directly or indirectly from Great 
Britain or Ireland, the United States of 
America or any self-governing British 
Dominion or Newfoundland, who shall 
satisfy the Immigration Officer in Charge 
at the port of entry that he has sufficient 
means to maintain himself until employ¬ 
ment is secured. 

(d) Any American citizen entering 
Canada from the United States, provided 
it is shown to the satisfaction of the 
Minister of Immigration and Coloniza¬ 
tion that his labor or service is required 
in Canada. 

Canada’s Care of Her Immigrant 

So much for the immigrant before 
he arrives in Canada and makes his 
start on the road toward Canadian 
citizenship. What becomes of him 
afterward? Any assumption that the 
Canadian Government feels no more 


62 


The Annals of the Aaierican Academy 


concern for his success once he has 
landed in the country would be founded 
on very incomplete information. Ob¬ 
viously it is not in the interests of 
Canada to encourage that type of 
immigrant which is going to lean un¬ 
duly upon the Canadian Government 
for support; the qualities of personal 
resourcefulness and sturdy personal 
independence are among the first req¬ 
uisites in new settlers and in the foun¬ 
dation work of a great nation. These 
qualities should never be impaired by 


over-paternalism, or by a generous or 
misguided disposition to pauperize. 
When this has been said it must still 
be granted that among considerable 
movements of new settlers there are 
sure.to occur individual cases calling 
for individual treatment, and if the 
histories of such cases could with 
propriety be made public they would 
go far to correct an opinion that the 
Government of Canada has followed 
a “sink or swim” policy in dealing with 
its newly arrived immigrants. 


The Aboriginal Races 

By Duncan C. Scott, Litt.D. 

Deputy Superintendent-General, Federal Department of Indian Affairs, Ottawa 


A ny comprehensive or reliable in¬ 
formation as to the aboriginal 
population of British North Amer¬ 
ica at the time of Champlain, or 
at the date of the Conquest, is non¬ 
existent, and there is no basis for 
a comparison between the native pop¬ 
ulation of today and that of past 
times. 

We state roughly that our natives, 
recognized legally as Indians and 
Eskimos, number 105,000 persons, 
whose descent is through the male 
line. This population includes many 
of mixed blood but excludes the prog¬ 
eny of legal marriages between white 
men and Indian women, the offspring of 
such unions being counted as citizens. 
They do not receive the protection of 
such special legislation as exists for 
Indians. This round number of 105,- 
000 must be much smaller than any 
figures representing the population of 
an earlier day. If we could know 
accurately the number of natives living 
at the time of Confederation, the com¬ 
parison would show a material de¬ 
crease. The native population of Brit¬ 
ish Columbia at the time of the union 
with the Dominion was stated, with 
fair accuracy, to be about 70,000; it is 
now counted as 25,000. The decrease 
of 64 per cent in fifty years was very 
rapid, assuredly more rapid than in any 
other province, but there has been un¬ 
doubtedly a very heavy loss of native 
population in all provinces since Con¬ 
federation. 

Ravages of Disease 

It is to be hoped that the lowest point 
of the general ebb has been reached, 
but it may be said at once that even 


now the birth rate is the important 
factor in stabilizing the population. 
The death rate is abnormally high. 
The inroads of tuberculosis and the 
losses by epidemics constantly operate 
to counteract the increases which 
might be expected from the favorable 
birth rate. During the epidemic of 
influenza, 1918-19, we lost 6,000 
Indians, and such diseases as smallpox 
and measles take annual toll, but 
.tuberculosis is the real foe of the 
aborigine. It is possible to fight this 
scourge in some measure in certain 
localities, but the conditions of abo¬ 
riginal life are so varied that it is im¬ 
possible to meet them all with effective 
methods. In Indian communities, 
close to civilization, there is a constant 
education going on in the schools; the 
nature and the danger of the disease is 
known to the Indians, and they have 
recourse to the sanitaria provided for 
the white population, but it is im¬ 
possible to follow with prophylactic 
advice and remedies Indians whose 
livelihood is gained by hunting and 
fishing. Exposure, irregular and often 
sparse food supply, crowded, over¬ 
heated shacks and other departures 
from the older and more sanitary life 
of the wigwam and teepee, all these aid 
the development and hasten the prog¬ 
ress of the disease. 

The Reserve System 

The location of Indians on special 
Reserves of land has been the practice 
from the earliest times in this country. 
This system was designed to protect 
them from encroachment and to estab¬ 
lish for them a sort of sanctuary where 
they could develop unmolested, until 


63 


64 


The Annals of the American Academy 


advancement had rendered possible 
their absorption with the general 
citizenship. The Reserve System was 
intended to insure the continuation of 
the tribal life and the life of the in¬ 
dividual as an Indian, as well as to 
render possible a continuous and con¬ 
sistent administrative policy directed 
toward civilization. If there had been 
strict confinement to Reserve limits, 
the system would have had many ob¬ 
jectionable features, but neither offi¬ 
cials nor Indians considered the Re¬ 
serve as more than a “pied de terre.” 
The Indians wandered away from it 
and returned to it as the nomadic 
instinct prompted, no doubt bringing 
back much undesirable knowledge and^ 
experience. But this mingling with the 
outside world was less undesirable 
than a strict confinement within 
boundaries would have been, even had 
such confinement been possible. We 
can now see the results in the older 
provinces of such an interplay of 
forces and tendencies. We find a 
native population to a certain degree 
intimate with the usages of civilized 
life. The individual Indian is either 
maintaining himself and his family 
away from his tribal reserve by mer¬ 
cantile or industrial pursuits, or living 
upon the Reserve and obtaining his 
subsistence from its soil. 

Enfranchisement 

The social condition of the Reserve 
Indians does not differ materially from 
the social conditions of those who have 
separated themselves from the tribal 
relationship. Intermarriage with white 
persons has affected both classes and 
has prevented the evils of marriage 
in closely related family groups. En¬ 
franchisement, that is the removal of 
all the civil disabilities which are borne 
by the Indian, and his mergence in the 
general citizenship, is the goal of all 
administrative effort. It is possible, 


under the present law, to enfranchise 
Indians of both classes, but the prob¬ 
lem of enfranchisement is less diflficult 
for those who own no land upon a 
Reserve. These are readily merged 
in the ranks of full and free citizens by 
the payment to them of their share of 
the capital funds of their tribe or band. 
When enfranchisement involves the 
allotment of land in fee simple and the 
disintegration of the Reserve, the 
matter is not so free from complica¬ 
tions, but through enfranchisement 
the Indians and the Indian problem 
disappears and the effort towards 
civilization is consummated. The 
older sections of the Dominion exhibit 
the process towards enfranchisement 
in action from day to day, but it has 
hardly begun to work in the newly 
settled districts or in the old provinces 
among hunting and fishing Indians. 
Enfranchisement is ‘ sometimes con¬ 
fused with the exercise of the franchise. 
In provincial elections no Indian re¬ 
siding in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, 
Alberta, British Columbia, or New 
Brunswick, has the right to vote, but 
in the other provinces, if he does 
not reside on a Reserve, and is 
otherwise qualified, he may vote. In 
Dominion elections those Indians 
only who served in the late war can 
vote. 

The following table gives the native 
population of Canada by provinces: 


Alberta. 8,837 

British Columbia. 25,694 

Manitoba. 11,583 

New Brunswick. 1,846 

Nova Scotia. 2,031 

Ontario. 26,411 

Prince Edward Is. 292 

Quebec. 13,366 

Saskatchewan. 10,646 

Northwest Territories. 3,764 

Yukon. 1,528 


Total. 105,998 

Eskimos. 3,290 
















The Aboriginal Races 


65 


Effect of Competition on Indians 

It will be observed that Ontario has 
the largest Indian population, at least 
50 per cent of the total of Indians in 
that province being dependent for a 
livelihood to a greater or lesser degree 
on hunting and fishing. A variable per¬ 
centage in all the provinces is likewise 
so dependent. This is the natural 
manner of life and although the Indian 
is by no means superior to the white 
man in this, his native pursuit, he is 
yet the most important source of 
supply to the fur trader. In British 
Columbia he is a highly important 
factor in the labor of the salmon 
fishery, not only in the taking of the 
fish but in the preparation in the can¬ 
neries of the product for the market. 

Of late the presence of competition 
in the hunt has begun to bear heavily 
upon the Indian and his maintenance 
problem becomes more diflBcult as the 
years go by. In the old days, when 
Indians alone were in the woods, fur 
was taken with care and with due con¬ 
cern for the future. The established 
traders took a paternal interest in the 
hunters, an interest perhaps not more 
elevated than their interest in the 
beavers or foxes, considering the ani¬ 
mals who trapped and the animals 
who were trapped as of equal impor¬ 
tance to a successful business venture, 
but the interest evoked by the situation 
at least ensured a fair supply of food 
and clothing for the Indian. The 
condition was a condition of bondage 
without evitable hardship, but the 
competition of rival traders brought a 
new element into the problem. Al¬ 
legiance to the rivals was set up and 
therefore discrimination and jealousy, 
and the lot of the Indian became 
harder. Now that the petty trader 
has invaded the field,—the foreigner 
without a permanent establishment 
and with only cash in hand,—further 


diflficulties have arisen and the incur¬ 
sions of white trappers have put a last 
tangle into the involved interests. No 
stringency of regulations can do more 
than postpone the final disappearance 
of the fur-bearing animals and the 
complete alteration in the source of 
native livelihood. In some districts 
the day is far off, in others it is near, 
and the Government has now to sup¬ 
plement the food supply which has 
failed for all but the more vigorous 
hunters. 

It will be gathered from this sketch 
that the policy is to protect the Indian, 
to guard his identity as a race and at 
the same time to apply methods which 
will destroy that identity and lead 
eventually to his disappearance as a 
separate division of the population. 
This policy might be frustrated by the 
gradual extinction of the race while 
yet in the tutelary stage. But that is 
hardly to be feared. The Indian has 
proved that he can withstand the 
shock of contact with our civilization, 
that he can survive the manifold evils 
of that contact, and transfer his native 
energy into the channels of modern 
life. The original stamina of the tribe 
to which he belongs is the root factor 
in his survival. Certain tribes have 
proved to be too feeble in their resist¬ 
ance to the new infiuences and will 
disappear, while others have overcome 
the initial evils and have increased and 
flourished. 

The Eskimos 

The Eskimos, who number about 
3,300, are not the least interesting 
native group in the Domipion, in fact 
they inspire respect by their vigorous 
spirit and industry. The quality of 
such smattering of our civilization as 
has reached them has been inferior and 
has been detrimental. The rude 
whaler first, and afterwards the casual 
fur-hunter have not been worthy 


6 


66 


The Annals of the American Academy 


specimens of our race and the adoption against the permanence of the race, 
of such habits as they could acquire It is doubtful whether it will long 
from such associates and the un- survive except in locations where the 
fortunate dissemination of some of our native life cannot be contaminated by 
most deadly diseases have been all outside influences. 


Agriculture in Eastern Canada 

By W. C. Hopper, B.S.A. 

Field Husbandman, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa 


O NLY three hundred years have 
passed since agricultural opera¬ 
tions were first begun in the territory 
now known as Eastern Canada. Vast 
forests, trackless except for the trails 
of the Indians, covered the greater 
part of this immense area of over 
seven hundred and seventeen million 
acres. The innumerable rivers and 
lakes, as yet untouched by commerce 
and undisturbed by sawmills, were 
teeming with fish. Game of all kinds 
was abundant. The beaver, the otter, 
the bear and other animals prized for 
their fur lived here unmolested by the 
white man’s rifles and unenticed by the 
white man’s traps. The homes of 
many tribes of red men, scattered 
along the shores of the different bodies 
of water, were the only members of the 
human family within the border of this 
great territory. 

One can hardly picture these scenes 
prevailing in the now modern and 
progressive provinces of Eastern Can¬ 
ada. Nearly half a million rural homes 
with their farm buildings and 48,785,- 
860 acres of cultivated land now re¬ 
place the virgin forests. Rural tele¬ 
phones, to the number of 155,643 
and 3,501 rural mail routes carry 
the messages to and from many 
of these farm dwellings. Several mil¬ 
lion head of live stock and great flocks 
of poultry form a large part of the 
wealth of this great country. Fifty- 
one cities, 297 towns, and 404 villages 
are now scattered over this land. 
Many hundred miles of electric rail¬ 
ways, 140,460 miles of highways, 
and 19,626 miles of steam railroads 
serve a population east of the 
province of Manitoba of 6,295,000. 
A civilization exists today in the 


five eastern provinces of the great 
Dominion, which well repays the 
faith and untiring efforts of the brave 
pioneers. 

Early Settlement 

Agricultural development was begun 
in 1605 at Port Royal (now Annapolis) 
where Sieur de Monts and Samuel de 
Champlain from France established a 
colony. Here the first wheat in Amer¬ 
ica was grown, the first mill in Canada 
established, the first boat in America 
built, and here the waters were 
reddened with the first bloodshed in 
the long and bitter struggle between 
the French and English for the su¬ 
premacy of America. In 1608 Cham¬ 
plain, who in that year laid the 
foundations of the city of Quebec, said 
of this newly discovered land: “It will 
be a great grain and grass producing 
country.” In 1617 Louis Hebert 
landed in New France, as the province 
of Quebec was then called, and began 
at once to clear and cultivate the land 
which is now the site of the Cathedral 
of Quebec. This Frenchman was the 
first farmer in the province of Quebec. 
In 1626 Champlain established a farm 
at the foot of Cap Tormente a few 
miles from Quebec City. Cattle, sheep, 
swine and poultry were raised here, 
the original stock having been brought 
from France. 

Although there were some farming 
operations carried on, the principal busi¬ 
ness of the early settlers of that time 
was hunting, trapping and fur trading. 
The Indians would readily give up 
great quantities of valuable furs for a 
few gaudy trinkets and the early 
trader became wealthy at the expense 
of the poor ignorant red man. 


67 


68 


The Annals of the American Academy 


The first settlement at Port Royal 
was located in the land called Acadia. 
This comprised both our present 
provinces of Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick. In 1686 the population 
of Acadia numbered 851 souls. They 
grew wheat, oats, flax and raised cattle, 
horses, sheep, swine and poultry. 

The first settlement in Prince Ed¬ 
ward Island, for the purpose of cultiva¬ 
tion, was in 1713. This island was 
ceded to England by the French in 1763. 

Although Jacques Cartier discovered 
the province of New Brunswick in 
1534, practically no agricultural de¬ 
velopment occurred until an English 
colony was established at Maugerville 
a few miles from the present city of 
Fredericton in the year 1762. 

The political status of the early 
French colonies was of necessity 
greatly influenced by the conflicts 
taking place in Europe between France 
and England. Warfare was frequently 
carried on between the French colony 
in Acadia and the British colonies of 
New England. In 1710 Acadia finally 
became a British colony and in 1755 
the Acadians of French origin who re¬ 
fused to swear allegiance to the British 
crown were expelled from the colony. 
The greatest legacy they left was the 
dykes which they had built, redeeming 
great areas of very fertile soil, and the 
fruit trees which they had planted. 

New France remained a French colo¬ 
ny until Quebec was taken in 1759 after 
the battle of the Plains of Abraham. 

Ontario up to this period was prac¬ 
tically uninhabited except by the 
Indians. In the year 1776 history tells 
us there were only about 1,000 French 
settlers in this province located along 
the shores of the Detroit River. 

Growth of Population 

The natural increase in population 
was augmented by colonists from 
France and Great Britian. From 1750 


to 1754, settlers to the number of 6,000 
were “planted” in Nova Scotia by the 
English, and many French settlers 
continued to arrive and set up homes 
in New France. After the American 
War of Independence about 70,000 
Loyalists who preferred to live under 
British rule immigrated to Canada. 
Ontario received about 10,000, who 
became the pioneers of this prov¬ 
ince. They settled mainly in the 
Niagara Peninsula. Loyalists also set¬ 
tled in that part of Quebec south of the 
St. Lawrence River called the Eastern 
Townships, and many thousands be¬ 
came the pioneers in different parts of 
New Brunswick and a large number 
settled on the abandoned Acadian 
farms of Nova Scotia. Some of the 
Acadians expelled in 1755, returned 
later to their homes in Nova Scotia and 
a settlement of Germans was later 
established in Nova Scotia at Lunen¬ 
burg. After the European w^ars of 
1816 a considerable flow of immigration 
from the British Isles started. All the 
provinces benefited by an increase in 
population. Sturdy English, Scotch, 
and Irish settlers drove back the forests 
and redeemed the fertile soil. 

The population of Eastern Canada 
was further increased by the British 
colonists from the New England States, 
who refused to fight against England 
in the War of 1812. In 1752 the 
population of Prince Edward Island 
was 2,014, which was increased to 
23,226 by 1827. The population of 
Nova Scotia (which included the 
present province of New Brunswick) 
in 1767 was 14,000. In 1759 Quebec’s 
population w^as 65,000. In 1812 the 
population of Ontario was 80,000, 
which increased to 213,000 in 1830. 

Difficulties in Establishment of 
Agriculture 

Agriculture in the early history of 
this country developed very slowly. 


Agriculture in Eastern Canada 


69 


The early settlers were not farmers but 
tradesmen, mechanics and discharged 
soldiers with no knowledge of farming, 
and it naturally took some time for 
them to become acquainted with their 
new vocation. The larger returns 
which they received from fur trading, 
hunting and trapping, prevented them 
from giving up these occupations for 
the cultivation of the soil. The re¬ 
moval of the virgin forests was a gi¬ 
gantic task, and the first and to some 
extent the second generation in Eastern 
Canada were more occupied in clearing 
the land than in cultivating the soil. 
Even down to the year 1859 the value 
of forest products exported exceeded 
that of agricultural products. 

The absence of markets gave the 
settlers no incentive to produce any 
more than .they required for actual 
sustenance of their families. The lack 
of faith in the possibilities of climate 
and soil for crop production which was 
entertained not only by many of the 
colonists but also in England greatly 
hindered the rapid development of 
agriculture. In Oliver Goldsmith’s his¬ 
tory published in England in 1750, we 
read that “Nova Scotia was a colony 
where men might be imprisoned but 
not maintained.” 

Poor communication which Prince 
Edward Island had with the mainland 
and the ownership of the land by English 
proprietors from 1759 to 1875 hindered 
the growth of agriculture. The Indian 
in conquests against the British set¬ 
tlers in Acadia, after 1710, destroyed 
buildings and crops until the year 1760, 
when unbroken peace was established. 

When Quebec was conquered by the 
British in 1759 the French Canadians 
refused to associate with their con¬ 
querors. For about a century, agri¬ 
culture, hampered by isolation and 
lack of agricultural organization, made 
little progress. In 1850 it was still 
limited to the growing of cereals with¬ 


out fertilizers and the production of 
hay. 

The War of 1812 with the United 
States held agriculture in Ontario 
practically at a standstill for nearly 
four years. A great deal of the farm 
work during these years was done by 
the women and children. 

The failure of the potato crop in 
1845 and the loss of the wheat crop a 
few years later in the Maritime Prov¬ 
inces, the ravages of the wheat midge 
in 1829 in Quebec (then called Lower 
Canada) and in 1849 in Ontario (Upper 
Canada) caused hard times and led 
many young men raised on the farm 
to try their fortunes in other callings. 

Agricultural Advancement 

The gradual increase of the popula¬ 
tion, the development of industry, com¬ 
merce, and of the various means of 
transportation and communication, is 
a romantic story. In the early days 
the settler carried his wheat on his 
back or transported it by canoe to the 
nearest gristmill, which was sometimes 
many miles distant, and brought back 
meal for bread. He grew flax and 
used the fibre to make homemade 
coarse linen fabrics, supplemented by 
skins of wild animals and the hides of 
cattle. Later when sheep were in¬ 
troduced homespun garments became 
an important part of the clothing of the 
early settlers. 

As the settlers increased the land be¬ 
came cleared, fences were erected, 
better houses were built to replace the 
old log cabins, and barns and stables 
were constructed. Sickles, flails and 
wooden ploughs were in time replaced 
by the self-binder, the threshing ma¬ 
chine and iron and steel ploughs. 
Good live stock was imported, princi¬ 
pally from the British Isles, for breed¬ 
ing purposes. The coming of railroads 
in the fifties and the improvement of 
highways meant better transportatioij 


70 


The Annals of the American Academy 


facilities for the carrying of farm 
products to the home markets in the 
growing towns and villages and pro¬ 
vided a means of outlet for the de¬ 
livery of surplus products to foreign 
markets. When the price of wheat 
rose from thirty cents to two dollars a 
bushel during the Crimean War many 
a farmer got his first real start towards 
independence. 

The letters on agriculture written at 
Halifax by John Young (Agricola) in 
1818, and the report of Prof. F. W. 
Johnston published in 1849 on the 
agricultural possibilities of New Bruns¬ 
wick gave a great impetus to crop pro¬ 
duction and stock raising in the Mari¬ 
time Provinces. The growth of the 
dairy industry in Quebec and Ontario 
were factors in the advancement of 
agriculture in these provinces. 

The organization of agricultural 
societies which began as early as 1789 
and the formation of provincial de¬ 
partments or boards of agriculture, 
which in Quebec and Ontario (Lower 
and Upper Canada) occurred in 1850, 
were important steps. 

The establishment of Provincial 
Agricultural Colleges at Guelph, On¬ 
tario, Truro, Nova Scotia, and Ste. 
Anne de la Pocatiere, Oka, and the 
MacDonald College in the province of 
Quebec also marked advances in the 
agriculture of Eastern Canada. 

After Confederation the Dominion 
Department of Agriculture was formed 
and in 1886 the Dominion Experi¬ 
mental Farm system came into being. 
Later the Dominion Live Stock Branch, 
the Dominion Dairy and other 
branches were formed. By financial 
assistance from the federal and pro¬ 
vincial governments, by education, by 
demonstration, and by individual and 
organized efforts farm practices have 
been improved, more definite markets 
established, and the agricultural in¬ 
dustry has been raised to the important 


place it now holds in the five provinces 
of Eastern Canada. 

Today we have scores of agricul¬ 
tural societies and cooperative associa¬ 
tions and institutions in all the 
provinces consisting of hundreds of 
thousands of members. The United 
Farmers of Ontario alone has about 
60,000 members. A great number of 
agricultural fairs, including several 
hundred school fairs, are held each 
year. There are 50 agricultural repre¬ 
sentatives located in the various coun¬ 
ties and districts in Ontario, 55 in 
Quebec and 7 in the Maritime Prov¬ 
inces. In the provinces are also found 
7 agricultural colleges with their ad¬ 
joining experimental farms and 12 
Dominion Experimental Farms and 
Stations. 

Topography and Soil 

The topography of the Maritime 
Provinces consists of contrasting up¬ 
land and lowland areas. Except in 
Prince Edward Island where condi¬ 
tions are much more uniform than on 
the mainland, the larger areas of 
fertile soil are almost entirely confined 
to the lowland areas. 

In the province of Quebec on both 
sides of the St. Lawrence slightly 
undulating in places, very deep and 
fertile alluvial soil extends in a con¬ 
tinual terrace, very narrow in the east 
but spreading into a vast plain in the 
west. It was in this region that the 
first settlement was established and it 
is here that the most flourishing 
parishes and most prosperous farms 
and towns exist today. The great 
northern area called New Quebec, 
from the best information that can be 
secured, is considered almost entirely 
unfit for agricultural development. 

Southern Ontario is generally of clay 
loam or sandy loam, undulating in 
surface, rich and retentive in soil with 
good natural drainage. The Great 


Agriculture in Eastern Canada 


71 


Clay Belt of Northern Ontario, one of 
the finest expanses of alluvial soil in 
the world, is a comparatively level 
area of many million of acres. This 
country is still almost entirely a vast 
forest region. 

Climate 

The climate of Eastern Canada for 
the most part is temperate with no 
great extremes except in the northern 
parts of Ontario and Quebec. The 
proximity of the Maritime Provinces 
and part of the province of Quebec to 
the Atlantic Ocean and the influence 
of the Great Lakes on Ontario have a 
modifying effect on the climate of these 
provinces. The season in the Mari¬ 
time Provinces and the colder districts 
of Quebec, except in parts of the 
Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, is 
too short and too cool for the successful 
production of such crops as corn, 
peaches and pears. Corn, however, 
may be grown in almost any of the 
older sections of Ontario, and peaches 
and pears in the more southern parts 
of this province. The total yearly 
precipitation averaged for many years 
in different parts of Eastern Canada is 
between 31 and 42 inches. Snow 
covers the ground from three to four 
months of the year. The cold Cana¬ 
dian winter has earned a great deal of 
praise and is balanced by the abun¬ 
dance of sunshine, and a summer of 
splendid ripening power. The atmos¬ 


phere almost the entire year is singu¬ 
larly exhilarating and bracing. 

Later Development 

The total population of Eastern 
Canada in 1921 was as follows: On¬ 
tario 2,933,662; Quebec 2,361,199; 
Nova Scotia 523,837; New Brunswick 
387,876; and Prince Edward Island 
88,615. In 1901 the rural population 
of Ontario was 57 per cent of the whole, 
while in 1921 it was only 42 per cent. 
Similar decreases have also occurred in 
all the other provinces. Mixed farm¬ 
ing with some line of specialization 
such as dairying, beef raising or bacon 
production characterizes to a large ex¬ 
tent the agriculture of Eastern Canada. 
The Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, 
and the Niagara district of Ontario 
are mostly devoted to fruit growing. 
The total estimated area under field 
crops was, in 1921, 20,658,000 acres. 

In Ontario 85 per cent of all farm 
lands were operated by owners, 92.28 
per cent in Quebec, 94.55 per cent in 
New Brunswick and more than 95 per 
cent in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward 
Island in 1911. The average size of 
farms and the average acreage of im¬ 
proved land per farm as given in the 
latest available statistics are contained 
in the table below. 

The total estimated value given to 
live stock in 1920 was in Ontario 
$332,194,000, Quebec $206,814,000, 
New Brunswick $31,188,000, Nova 



Average Size Per 
Farm in Acres 

Average Acreage of 
Improved Land Per 
Farm 

Ontario. 

97.76 

60.2 

Quebec. 

97.77 

51.11 

New Brunswick. 

118.76 

37.81 

Nova Scotia. 

98.08 

23.44 

Prince Edward Island. 

83.68 

53.53 
















n 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Province 

Spring Wheat 

Oats 

Barley 

Acreage 

Average 
Yield 
Per Acre 

Acreage 

Average 
Yield 
Per Acre 

Acreage 

Average 
Yield 
Per Acre 



Bus. 


Bus. 


Bus. 

Prince Edward Island. 

34,106 

16. 

189,456 

33.25 

6,334 

27.85 

Nova Scotia. 

16,294 

19.75 

136,904 

33.6 

8,686 

28.45 

New Brunswick. 

28,028 

17. 

284,728 

29.15 

8,898 

24.95 

Quebec. 

180,616 

16.2 

2,366,810 

26.4 

191,673 

22.55 

Ontario Fall Wheat. 

621,420 

22.4 

3,094,958 

37.1 

462,176 

30.3 

Ontario Spring Wlieat. 

153,904 

18.5 












Province 

Hay 

Potatoes 

Fodder Corn 

Acreage 

Average 
Yield 
Per Acre 

.\creage 

Average 
Yield 
Per Acre 

Acreage 

Average 
Yield 
Per Acre 



Tons 


Bus. 


Tons 

Prince Edward Island. 

255,394 

1.55 

36,921 

168. 

485 

9.25 

Nova Scotia. 

571,661 

1.7 

39,168 

184.5 

1,466 

9.2 

New Brunswick. 

694,497 

1.43 

74,875 

168. 

3,738 

6.05 

Quebec. 

4,426,671 

1.5 

222,084 

162.5 

89,546 

7.85 

Ontario Fall Wheat. 

3,551,655 

1.55 

164,096 

113.2 

438,343 

9.3 

Ontario Spring Wheat. 















Scotia $34,648,000, and Prince Ed¬ 
ward Island $12,149,000. 

The total acreage under six of the 
principal field crops grown in Eastern 
Canada for the year of 1921 and the 
average yield of these crops per acre is 
given herewith. 

Other field crops grown in these 
provinces are peas, beans, buckwheat, 
rye, mixed grains, turnips and mangels. 
In Ontario and Quebec are also grown 
flaxseed, corn for husking, and alfalfa, 
and in the former province several 
thousand acres of sugar beets are 
grown every year. 

Dairy products provide a large part 
of the income of farmers of Eastern 
Canada. In 1921 the total value of 


the creamery butter produced was 
$34,331,339, the factory cheese pro¬ 
duced was valued at $28,296,919, and 
about $14,000,000 worth of condensed 
milk and milk powder was manu¬ 
factured. 

The value of fruit and vegetables 
grown in the eastern provinces reaches 
many millions, -commercial apples 
alone in 1919 were valued at $17,365,- 
330. 

Large annual returns are received 
from poultry raising. In 1921 there 
were over twenty-three million birds 
on the farms of Eastern Canada. 

The bee-keeping industry, tobacco 
growing and the production of bacon, 
beef, mutton and wool also provide a 



























































Agriculture in Eastern Canada 


73 


goodly share of the financial returns 
from agricultural pursuits. 

In 1880 all the wheat, except 3.2 per 
cent which was grown in Manitoba, 
and all the oats and barley were grown 
in the eastern provinces. In 1921, 
however, 93 per cent of the total wheat 
of Canada, 67 per cent of the oats and 
74 per cent of the barley were grown in 
the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatche¬ 
wan and Alberta. 

The total value of field crops grown 
in Eastern Canada in 1870 was 
$111,116,606. No crops at that time 
were grown in what are now the 
western provinces. In 1921, however, 
the value of field crops grown in 
Eastern Canada was $818,731,750, 
while the western provinces produced 
field crops valued at $636,511,900. 

Future of Agriculture 

The future of agriculture in Eastern 
Canada is diflBcult to predict. Mixed 
farming, dairying and fruit growing 
are now firmly established. 

Not more than one-half of the esti¬ 
mated area of over one hundred and 
ten million acres fit for agriculture in 
Eastern Canada is now occupied as 
farm lands. The great cost of clearing 
away the forests will prevent rapid 
improvement of this land for cultiva¬ 
tion. Thousands of acres of cleared 
land in the Maritime Provinces now 
available for cultivation at a reasonable 
price and the great areas in the Cana¬ 


dian West as yet untouched by the 
plough will no doubt become occupied 
before much of this forest covered land 
is cleared. 

The network of railways in Eastern 
Canada, the improvement of highways 
now under way by the different pro¬ 
vincial governments and the splendid 
location of seaports all facilitate the 
cheap and rapid transportation of 
agricultural products for delivery to 
the home and foreign markets. 

The present government grading of 
farm products should result in the im¬ 
provement of quality and the en¬ 
largement of markets and the efforts 
being put forth to reduce the cost 
of production on the farm should fur¬ 
ther stabilize the basic industry of 
agriculture. 

When the traveller arrives at an 
Eastern Canada seaport he will see 
great quantities of wheat, fiour, bacon, 
eggs, cheese, and butter awaiting ex¬ 
port. As he travels inland he will find 
substantial farm homes, horses, cattle, 
sheep and swine representing most of 
the important breeds, meadows and 
fields of grain and fodder corn. These 
evidences of prosperity and the large 
number of farmers’ automobiles and 
tractors, the up-to-date farm imple¬ 
ments and the exceedingly hospitable 
people will undoubtedly give the 
traveller the impression that rural 
Eastern Canada is prosperous and a 
desirable place in which to live. 


Western Agricultural Resources 

By Norman P. Lambert 

Assistant to the President of the Maple Leaf Milling Co., Winnipeg; Ex-Secretary of 

the Canadian Council of Agriculture 


D uring the past hundred years, 
the extent of the agricultural re¬ 
sources of middle-western Canada, 
generally known as the Prairie Prov¬ 
inces, has been the subject of much 
calculation of varying degrees of opti¬ 
mism and pessimism. Only compara¬ 
tively recently have our governments— 
federal and provincial—^sought to com¬ 
prehend the truth with respect to the 
possibilities of western agriculture. 
For the greater part of the past 
century, views of the potential wealth 
of the prairie lands have swung from 
one extreme to another, influenced too 
often by selfish political or commercial 
interests. 

Early Agricultural Possibilities 

As early as 1809, at Fort Dunvegan 
on the Peace River, Daniel Harmon 
wrote in his diary: “We have cut our 
barley and I think it is the finest I ever 
saw;” and in the following year the 
same diary records that in the opinion 
of the writer “wheat, rye, barley, oats, 
peas, etc., could grow well on the 
plains around us.” About fifty years 
later, when that pompous little Gov¬ 
ernor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 
Sir George Simpson, gave evidence be¬ 
fore a special committee of the British 
House of Commons, upon the character 
and future possibilities of the Canadian 
Northwest, he intimated that all the 
territory west of the Red River settle¬ 
ment was fit for little else than pastur¬ 
age for buffalo herds, and said that in 
the^Red River settlement, agricultural 
operations had not been encouraging. 
It was not until after Confederation 
and the building of the Canadian 


Pacific Railway, that the territory now 
contained in the provinces of Mani¬ 
toba, Saskatchewan and iVlberta, be¬ 
came known as a great agricultural 
country. Almost at one bound, the 
Canadian West passed from a stage of 
pathless prairie, inhabited by Indians 
and buffalo, to an active farming com¬ 
munity, with its homesteads, roads 
and fences. This transition was ac¬ 
celerated by the energetic efforts of the 
speculator in farm-lands and town-lots; 
and in the hectic atmosphere of the 
“boom” days, the agricultural re¬ 
sources of the three middle-western 
provinces were pictured in lurid and 
extravagant colors. 

Shortly after the election of the 
Laurier Government to federal office 
in 1896, an aggressive immigration 
policy was adopted, and free home¬ 
steads were offered promiscuously 
throughout the world, with the object 
of inducing settlement on the plains of 
Western Canada. The result of this 
policy was that very large areas which 
formerly had been classified as range- 
land and divided into cattle and horse 
ranches, were broken up into 16()-acre 
lots, regardless of the suitability of 
such areas to smaller farming opera¬ 
tions. Those were the days when 
reference to the potential agricultural 
wealth of the middle west was made in 
superlative terms. 

Scientific Surveys Begun 

Since that time, and particularly 
since the World War, the agricultural 
departments of the three Prairie Prov¬ 
inces have realized that the people 
within their respective fields of ad- 


Western Agricultural Resources 


75 


ministration, as well as those in other 
parts of the Dominion, have been 
living under the mistaken impression 
that the richness and fertility of the 
prairie soil were practically unlimited. 
Consequently, within the past three or 
four years, in the more sober light of 
after-war conditions, we have seen 
greater progress made towards a reali¬ 
zation of the actual facts of our western 
agricultural resources, than during all 
the preceding years. Until three years 
ago, a detailed and thoroughly scien¬ 
tific survey of western soils had never 
been undertaken. One or two recon¬ 
naissance surveys which made only a 
rapid and superficial examination of 
the land had been undertaken, but not 
until 1919 did we have a beginning 
made at the important task of investi¬ 
gating closely the extent, quality and 
capacity of the arable lands of Western 
Canada. Each of the Prairie Provinces 
already has had survey boards report 
upon soil conditions in its southerly 
districts, and a complete examination 
of the soils in Manitoba, Saskatchewan 
and Alberta, where farming operations 
have met with continued adversity, is 
now in progress. 

Topography of Prairie Provinces 

Roughly speaking, the Prairie Prov¬ 
inces comprise a rectangular area 
lying between the Rocky Mountains 
on the west and the barren lands 
lying north of Lake Superior on the 
east, and between the 49th parallel of 
latitude on the south and the 60th 
parallel of latitude on the north. In 
round numbers, the proportions of this 
rectangle are some 800 miles east and 
west by some 750 miles south to north. 
Beyond the 60th parallel of latitude is 
the great Hinterland of the North 
American continent, extending over 
bush land and mineral area to the edge 
of the Arctic circle. The actual land 
area of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and 


Alberta, surveyed and unsurveyed 
amounts to 464 million acres, of which 
something over 200 million acres can be 
described as land having cultivation pos¬ 
sibilities. From Manitoba the plains 
rise in three sweeping steppes to the 
foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The 
first and lowest is the Red River Valley 
in Manitoba, which has an altitude of 
some 800 feet above sea level. The 
northern part of this first plain is occu¬ 
pied by the Winnipeg group of lakes, and 
south of Lake Winnipeg it rises from the 
eastern boundary of the province to 
the ridges of the Pembina, Riding and 
Duck Mountains and the Porcupine 
Hills. This series of hills extending 
northward from the international 
boundary line to a position west of 
Lake Winnipeg constitutes the westerly 
shore of the prehistoric Lake Agassiz, 
which is said to have been drained 
in a southerly direction, leaving de¬ 
posits of clay and silt, which are now 
overlaid by several feet of black, 
vegetable loam. 

The second steppe reaches from the 
mountain ridges just enumerated, west¬ 
ward into Saskatchewan as far as the 
Missouri Coteau, known locally as 
the Dirt Hills, which extend from the 
international boundary west of the 
town of Estevan in a northwesterly 
direction to the elbow of the South 
Saskatchewan River. This range of 
hills has an average altitude of about 
2,400 feet above sea level and is be¬ 
lieved to have been the boundary of 
another ancient body of water, known 
geologically as Lake Saskatchewan, 
and covering a large proportion of what 
is now the easterly and northerly sec¬ 
tions of the province of Saskatchewan. 
The second steppe, thus described, in¬ 
cludes southwestern Manitoba. 

The third steppe extends from the 
westerly part of Saskatchewan to the 
Rocky Mountains, developing, as it 
reaehes Alberta, into a high plateau 


76 


The Annals of the American Academy 


with an altitude of from 2,500 to 3,500 
feet above sea level. All the way 
across the 800 miles of territory be¬ 
tween the easterly boundary of Mani¬ 
toba and the westerly boundary' of 
Alberta there is a wide variety of soils 
and of geographical conditions. The 
climate, also, is subject to marked 
variations as between those parts of the 
territory lying east and west of a line 
which may be drawn north and south 
through the center of Saskatchewan. 

Types of Soil in Manitoba 

In Manitoba, as many 'as eight 
different types of soil have been iden¬ 
tified. The first type is that of the 
Red River Valley, which exceeds in 
natural fertility any other portion of 
the prairie country. It has been 
estimated that in an acre of this soil at 
a depth of one foot there is 20,000 to 
25,000 pounds of nitrogen; 1.033 per 
cent of potash; .29 per cent of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and an equally large pro¬ 
portion of lime. In organic matter, 
the Red River Valley is particularly 
rich, exceeding in tliis respect by 25 
per cent water free soil. These figures 
represent a natural fertility far in 
excess of the ordinary quality of virgin 
soil, which, for example, contains in 
nitrogen, an average of 3,500 to 
10,000 pounds. 

Soils Nos. 2 and 3 are found in the 
Portage la Prairie district, about 65 
miles west of Winnipeg. No. 2 is a 
virgin prairie, uncropped and un¬ 
manured, while No. 3 is the same soil 
after 35 years of grain growing inter¬ 
spersed with summer-fallow. The vir¬ 
gin soil of this locality is considerably 
darker and contains more root fibre 
than the No. 3 which has been sub¬ 
jected to constant cultivation. No. 2 
is not quite equal to No. 1 from the 
Red River Valley. 

Soils Nos. 4 and 5 are found in the 
Brandon district, 130 miles west of 


Winnipeg. They are almost identical, 
being a mellow black loam and some¬ 
what sandy, but exceedingly fertile in 
years when they have received an 
adequate supply of moisture. 

Soil No. 6 is located west of Lake 
'Dauphin and northwest of Lake Mani¬ 
toba, where trees and shrubs abound. 
It is a sandy loam, rich in organic 
matter, but with a large proportion of 
clay which makes it bake very hard 
when dried by the sun and wind. It 
has shown good fertility, having a 
higher percentage of organic matter, 
however, than of nitrogen and potash. 
In the Valley River section of the 
Dauphin district, soils Nos. 7 and 8 
are found, and these are of poorer 
fertility than any of the soils previously 
enumerated. 

Types of Soil in Saskatchewan 

In Saskatchewan, according to Pro¬ 
fessor Shutt of the Central Experi¬ 
mental Farm at Ottawa, there are 
eleven types of soils. Soil No. 1 is 
found around Moosomin and is de¬ 
scribed as a rich, black loam of high 
fertility and not quite equal in chemi¬ 
cal analysis to the soil found in the Red 
River Valley. This soil in the Mooso¬ 
min district is to be found generally 
over the southeastern part of the 
second prairie steppe wdiich has already 
been described. At Tisdale, 160 miles 
north of the district around Indian 
Head and Moosomin, soil No. 2 is 
found and compares with that of the 
Dauphin district of Manitoba, being 
covered with scrub, and unlike the 
prairie. It is a grayish, black loam of a 
clayey nature, whose notable contents 
are potash and lime. At Saltcoats 
and Yorkton in the northeasterly part 
of Saskatchewan, soils Nos. 3 and 4 are 
described as a black, sandy loam of 
true prairie type, rich in vegetable 
matter and nitrogen, with a goodly 
percentage of phosphoric acid and 


Western Agricultural Resources 


77 


potash. In this district, there is a 
greater growth of shrubbery and trees 
than is usually found on the prairies 
farther south. It is a district which 
is well known for its excellent crops of 
oats. 

Soils Nos. 5 and 6 represent an area 
at Wolseley which has been under crop 
for 15 years, without manure. They 
are described as black, sandy loams, 
rich in vegetable matter. At the 
Dominion Experimental Farm at In¬ 
dian Head a variety of soils from No. 7 
to 10 is to be found. These are all 
generally described as being a heavy, 
clay loam, with varying degrees of 
plant constituents. One of these soils 
is shown after a cultivation of 22 years 
without manure, to have been de¬ 
pleted of 2,186 pounds of nitrogen per 
acre from a depth of eight inches. 

Soil No. 11 is in the district of the 
Vermillion Hills, 130 miles west of 
Indian Head, and is a dark brown, 
sandy loam, equal in organic matter 
and nitrogen to soils Nos. 7 to 10, 
but lower in phosphoros, lime and 
potash. 

Soil Found in Alberta 

As for Alberta, there does not seem 
to be available any extensive data with 
regard to the classification of soils. 
Over the prairie country which com¬ 
prises the southern part of that prov¬ 
ince, the soil is described as a rich, 
chocolate loam, varying in depth from 
four to eight inches, while in the park 
country to the north there is a heavier 
black loam from six inches to two feet 
deep, being rich in nitrogen and 
phosphorous acid. Alberta, however, 
is very rich in natural vegetation. 
There are ninety-six different varieties 
of grasses, of which, forty-six make 
good hay. There are over ninety 
varieties of rushes and sedges, many of 
which make good hay, and all of them 
good pasturage. 


Climatic Conditions 

The chief climatic factors in middle- 
western Canada so far as agriculture is 
concerned, are drouth and frost. Ex¬ 
tremes in the matter of precipitation 
and temperature, which frequently 
occur on the prairies, are vital factors 
in the life of the western farmer. In 
Manitoba, freedom from frost varies 
from 70 days in the northerly and 
westerly districts to 110 days in the 
southern part of the Red River Valley. 
The average yearly rainfall in Mani¬ 
toba ranges from 16 inches in the 
western part of the province to over 
21 inches in the eastern part. This 
represents more rain than falls in any 
other part of Canada or the American 
prairies, west of the 100th Meridian, 
but it is much less than that enjoyed 
east of that Meridian. The compen¬ 
sating feature in connection with this 
seeming lack of moisture in the western 
provinces throughout the year, is that 
the rain falls when it is most needed, 
namely, in the growing months of May, 
June, July and August. In the Red 
River Valley in Manitoba, the rainfall 
in these four months is about equal to 
that of Ontario during the same period. 

In Saskatchewan, the average pre¬ 
cipitation is something less than 20 
inches annually, the northeastern sec¬ 
tions of the province receiving a more 
generous supply of moisture than the 
more southerly and westerly districts. 
Despite the evil reputation of the 
western country for wintry weather, 
the average temperature for 10 years 
in the month of January in Saskatche¬ 
wan was 2.9 degrees above zero, and 
for the month of June 57 degrees above 
zero. The westerly half of Saskatche¬ 
wan feels the modifying influence of the 
Chinook winds, which find their way 
through the Rocky Mountains and as 
far east as Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. 
It is in Alberta, however, where the 


78 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Chinook winds have the greatest effect, 
and there, over the greater part of the 
province, the period of winter is broken 
up and greatly moderated by the 
tempering influence of the Chinook 
winds. The average rainfall for the 
province of Alberta is about 16 inches, 
varying from 9 inches in the Medicine 
Hat district to 17 inches in the Edmon¬ 
ton district. 

Methods of Land Cultivation 

Methods of land cultivation em¬ 
ployed on the western prairies have 
been mainly of three kinds. The first 
two methods have to do with the 
breaking of the virgin prairie. First, 
the land is plowed to a depth of three 
or more inches and left until the follow¬ 
ing spring and then worked with a disc 
harrow in preparation for seed, being 
cultivated again in the late fall. This 
is known as the “deep-breaking” 
method, and the popular first crop for 
areas cultivated in this way has been 
flax. The second, and more generally 
adopted method has been as follows: 
Plowing before July, a furrow 12 to 14 
inches wide, and very shallow. Later, 
when the sod has decayed, to plow 
three inches deeper and perform what 
is known as “back-setting.” This 
process of back-setting should be 
followed up by an operation with the 
disc harrow. Rolling and packing the 
soil after the first breaking hastens 
decomposition of the soil, and the back¬ 
setting is made possible at a much 
earlier date in the season. The third 
process of cultivation in the West, of 
course, is summer-fallowing, which 
consists in leaving a large portion of 
the cultivated areas idle each year. 
This is done primarily to destroy the 
weeds, and help preserve the moisture 
for the seed-bed of the following year. 

In Alberta, a great deal of attention 
is now being given to irrigation, as a 
means of overcoming the uncertainty 


of grain production, due to drouth. 
There are now in the province of 
Alberta, nineteen different irrigation 
projects, comprising over 5,600,000 
acres of land. Of this acreage, over a 
half is represented in the irrigation 
projects of the Canadian Pacific Rail¬ 
way Company, immediately east of 
Calgary. Where irrigation is being 
adopted, however, the character of the 
farming operations is changing from 
grain-growing to the live-stock industry. 

Crop Areas 

Of the 200,000,000 acres of land avail¬ 
able for cultivation which is said to lie 
within the three Prairie Provinces, only 
a very small percentage is under crop. 
In the province of Manitoba, the total 
agricultural acreage amounts to some¬ 
thing over 20,000,000 acres, of which 
13J millions is actually occupied by 
farmers, and out of this area now di¬ 
vided into farms, slightly more than 
7,000,000 acres are under cultivation. 

In Saskatchewan, the southern half 
of the province is divided into nine 
crop districts, which represent roughly, 
85,000,000 acres. Of that number of 
acres, there are probably 40,000,000 
acres divided into farms with an aver¬ 
age size of 320 acres, but the actual 
acreage devoted to crops this year 
(1922) is less than 22,000,000 acres. 
Likewise in Alberta, whose possible cul¬ 
tivated area extends much farther north¬ 
ward than that of the other two Prairie 
Provinces, it is estimated there is 
roughly 100 million acres of arable 
land, of which today less than eight 
millions are bearing crops. Thus in the 
three Prairie Provinces only 17 to 18 per 
cent of the total area having cultivation 
possibilities has been put under crop. 

Increase in Production 

The extent to which production has 
already increased in this country, how¬ 
ever, may be appreciated when it is 


Western Agricultural Resources 


79 


shown that in 1900, the middle-western 
territory produced 17,000,000 bushels 
of wheat from 1,870,000 acres, and that 
22 years later, from 21,500,000 acres 
we have an estimated wheat crop of 
385,000,000 bushels. What is recorded 
here with respect to wheat is true, also, 
of the other crops, such as oats, barley, 
rye, and flax. Taking all grains into 
consideration, there was an area under 
crop this year (1922) in the middle 
west, amounting to 36 million acres, 
which yielded an estimated production 
of 812 million bushels. The province 
of Saskatchewan, in which over 72 per 
cent of the population reside on the 
land, is responsible for considerably 
more than 50 per cent of this total 
production, and has more acres under 
cultivation to grain than Manitoba 
and Alberta combined. 

As indicative of the possibilities of 
the future, a word should be said about 
the northerly districts of Alberta, 
bordering the Peace River. Wheat 
has been grown for more than 25 years 
at Fort Liaird, 135 miles west of the 
northwest corner of that province, and 
also, at Fort Simpson, which is 100 
miles north of the 60th parallel of 
latitude. As early as 1875 wheat was 
sent from Fort Chipewyan to the 
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia 
in 1876 and was awarded first prize. 
In 1893, wheat from Peace River 
Crossing won first prize at the Chicago 
World’s Fair. At Fort Vermillion 
there are now two stone flour mills and 
a 25-barrel roller mill, which grind 
annually from 30,000 to 50,000 bushels 
of wheat grown in the immediate 
vicinity, and used for supplying trading 
posts farther north. 

The Live-stock Industry 

While the western provinces have 
been known principally for their pro¬ 
duction of grain, the live-stock in¬ 
dustry has been quietly developing 


into large proportions. In the year 
1891 the live-stock industry of the 
West was represented largely in the 
province of Alberta and southwestern 
Saskatchewan, where the Dominion 
Government had 1,801,209 acres of 
grazing lands under lease to over 100 
lessees, six of these controlling over 
100,000 acres each. That was the day 
of the big ranch, and it is recorded that 
in 1892 on ranches there were 20,579 
horses, 139,000 cattle and 80,000 
sheep. It is interesting to note that 
in the years 1918 and 1919, which 
represent the high peak in the live¬ 
stock industry in Western Canada, the 
numbers of the different kinds of live¬ 
stock had increased in a remarkable 
manner. In Alberta, there were 800,- 
000 horses, 1,584,000 cattle, 364,000 
sheep, 446,000 swine and 4,426,000 
poultry. In Saskatchewan, stocks 
have increased in 20 years from 83,000 
to 1,000,000 horses; from 117,000 to 
1,380,000 cattle; from 73,000 to 147,000 
sheep; from 27,000 to 432,000 swine 
and from zero to 8,500,000 poultry. 
In Manitoba in 1889 there were 148,- 
200 cattle which had increased to 
192,500 by 1895. Twenty-five years 
later in Manitoba there were 800,000 
cattle, 400,000 horses, 167,000 sheep, 
250,000 hogs and 3,000,000 poultry. 
Today, with adverse economic in¬ 
fluences affecting production in West¬ 
ern Canada, the live-stock industry 
looms up as the hope of the future. 

Depletion of Soil Fertility in 
Overworked Sections 

While only a small proportion of the 
number of available acres for cultiva¬ 
tion in the three western provinces has 
been occupied and used for farming 
purposes, it is of interest and impor¬ 
tance to note that that part of the 
settled area bordering on the inter¬ 
national boundary line and generally 
known as the southern districts of 


80 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, 
have reached the point where the law 
of diminishing returns distinctly applies 
to present farming operations. The 
southerly districts of the prairies were 
the first to be opened for settlement, 
they being the most accessible to the 
earliest lines of railway which were 
built across the continent. The first 
tide of immigration from the East 
flowed over, the southern portions of 
these provinces and produced the first 
crops of grain that were growm in 
Western Canada. The effect of con¬ 
stant grain cropping over a period 
ranging from 2.5 to 35 years has been 
all too indelibly written upon land 
lyhich was once as fertile and produc¬ 
tive as any part of the prairies. Each 
of the western provinces has now its 
problem in planning to reclaim these 
southern areas, whose fertility has 
been depleted. 

In the Progress Report of the Agri¬ 
cultural Survey Committee appointed 
by the government of Manitoba, 
Principal John Bracken, who has 
since become the Prime Minister of the 
province, made the following observa¬ 
tions respecting the soil conditions 
where grain cropping has been carried 
on for a generation: 

The effect of a generation of cropping to 
wheat has been to reduce the nitrogen in 
the surface 7 inches of soil, by 20 per cent 
to 30 per cent, the phosphorous content by 
an equal amount, and organic matter by 
20 to 50 tons per acre. In a generation, 
more than a quarter of the potential wealth 
of the surface soil has disappeared. 

In this same report, Mr. Bracken 
states that in 30 years, the average 
wheat yield in the province has 
dropped from 19 bushels to 15 bushels 
per acre. 

Change in Agricultural System 

In Saskatchewan, the Royal Com¬ 
mission of Inquiry into Farming Con¬ 


ditions found that the system of agri¬ 
culture in the southwestern and cen¬ 
tral-western portions of that province, 
would have to be radically changed. 
The practice of summer-fallowing year 
after year in dry and windy districts, 
had resulted not only in the impover¬ 
ishment of the soil, but in pulverising 
it to such a degree of fineness, that it 
was impossible for the farmer to engage 
in proper tillage. The Saskatchewan 
Commission, in dealing with the man¬ 
agement of drifting soils, reports that 
the farmers’ only recourse is to in¬ 
crease the resisting power of the soil 
and to protect the soil surface from 
wind. The methods to be used 
in accomplishing these two objects 
are to increase the moisture content 
of the soil and to increase its 
content of organic matter and by 
modifying the structure of the soil. 
Explicitly does the Saskatchewan 
Commission make the following rec¬ 
ommendation : 

Judging by the experiments of settlers as 
well as by the experience of farmers and the 
reports of experimental stations in areas 
having similar conditions elsewhere, the 
commissioners believe that the following 
crops may prove of value to the south¬ 
west area: winter rye, spring rye, durum 
wheat, corn, sunflower, potatoes, millet, 
oats, barley, alfalfa, sweet clover, brome 
grass as well as wheat grass. 

Further in its report, in referring to 
what other states and provinces were 
doing to control soil-drifting in arid 
areas, the Saskatchewan Commission 
states that winter rye is becoming in¬ 
creasingly popular in Alberta, and that 
sweet clover is being used to some 
extent in rotations, although brome 
grass is better as a soil binder than the 
legumes or other grasses commonly 
grown. In Manitoba, it was observed 
that many farmers were using manure 
or straw to prevent soil-drifting, or 
check it when it begins. The acreage 


Western Agricultural Resources 


81 


seeded to grass is also being extended 
in that province. 

Another contribution to the solution 
of western agricultural problems has 
been the Report of the Survey Board 
for Southern Alberta addressed to the 
government of that province. It has 
to deal with a very serious condition 
which has developed as a result of a 
series of very dry years. Irrigation 
appears to be the popular recommenda¬ 
tion for overcoming the handicap of 
excessive drouth under which so many 
of the farmers of Southern Alberta 
have been struggling. 

A perusal of these special reports on 


the southern areas of each of the 
western provinces shows that the 
agricultural outlook in Western Canada 
is not wholly without its trying prob¬ 
lems. But withal, these three prov¬ 
inces have been blessed with sufficient 
agricultural resources to support a 
population of ten millions of people 
instead of two millions, provided that 
other factors such as marketing, trans¬ 
portation and financial facilities are 
favorable. Nature has bestowed with 
lavish hand, agricultural wealth in the 
land of Western Canada, and it only 
remains for man to bring it into full 
fruition. 


7 


Agricultural Research in Canada 

Its Origin and Development 

By E. S. Hopkins, B.S.A., M.S. 

Dominion Field Husbandman, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa 


I N Canada, as in other countries, re¬ 
search in agriculture is compara¬ 
tively modern. While the practice of 
agriculture dates back to the most re¬ 
mote times, its scientific study com¬ 
menced less than one hundred years 
ago. Not until the sciences of chem¬ 
istry, bacteriology and botany had 
made some development, did the 
science of agriculture become possible, 
for the science of agriculture is but 
the application of the principles of 
the pure sciences to the field of agri¬ 
culture. 

To show more definitely how recent 
has been the development of research 
in agriculture, it is only necessary to 
mention the date when some of the 
more important discoveries were made. 
Liebig in Germany showed the value 
of the mineral constituents in the nu¬ 
trition of plants in 1840. Lawes and 
Gilbert, in England, showed the value 
of rotations and treated phosphate 
rock about 1850. These discoveries, 
though constituting some of the more 
essential features of soil fertility and 
enabling a much more productive agri¬ 
culture, were unknown to the farmers 
of past centuries. In the domain of 
live stock, a similarly backward con¬ 
dition prevailed; the ignorance seems, 
in the light of present knowledge, 
almost incredible. Yet, Pasteur, in 
France, less than fifty years ago, was 
the first to prove that spontaneous 
generation—the supposed generation 
of living things from non-living matter 
—was untenable. This distinguished 
scientist, by his work with anthrax and 


with rabies in 1885, was the first to 
introduce the control of disease by 
means of antitoxins. 

Early Beginnings 

In 1843 the first agricultural experi¬ 
ment station in the world was started 
at Rothamstead, England. In Can¬ 
ada, the first agricultural experiment 
station was started at the Ontario 
Agricultural College, Guelph, in 1874, 
although, at an earlier date a school of 
agriculture was started at Ste. Anne de 
la Pocatiere, Quebec, in 1859. The 
Dominion Experimental Farms were 
established in 1886, a system which 
included in addition to the Central 
Farm at Ottawa, four branch farms in 
various parts of Canada. It is rather 
interesting to note, in the annals of 
Canadian agriculture, that the founding 
of both the Ontario Agricultural Col¬ 
lege and the Dominion Experimental 
Farm System was accomplished by 
Sir John Carling when he was Minister 
of Agriculture, first in the government 
of the province of Ontario and later in 
that of the Federal Parliament. 

The early work of these agricultural 
experimental farms was beset with 
great difficulties. The field was new, 
the general public was suspicious if not 
hostile, there was little existing work 
with which to guide the hand of the 
investigators and, almost above all 
other diflficulties, their support, both 
financially and morally, was very 
meager. These agricultural experi¬ 
mental farms, unlike endowed institu¬ 
tions, depended upon the Government 


82 


Agricultural Research in Canada 


83 


for financial support and the fact that 
they, as well as many additional farms, 
have developed, is proof not only of 
the good work of the early men who 
manned these places but of the great 
need in the country for experimental 
work in agriculture. 

Growth 

In later years considerable develop¬ 
ment in agricultural institutions has 
taken place. From its four original 
branch farms, the Dominion Experi¬ 
mental Farm System has increased to 
a total of twenty-one branch farms, 
seven substations, two tobacco stations 
and eighty-six illustration fields in 
various regions throughout Canada. 
Other branches of the Federal De¬ 
partment have undertaken investiga¬ 
tions in connection with various phases 
of work under their charge. The 
Ontario Agricultural College has in¬ 
creased from an initial personnel of 
seven members, under the interesting 
titles of principal, rector, farm fore¬ 
man, stockman, gardener, engineer and 
foreman carpenter to a faculty of ap¬ 
proximately sixty-two members, in¬ 
cluding the various departments of 
pure and agricultural sciences. A 
small school of agriculture was opened 
at Truro, Nova Scotia, in 1888; a col¬ 
lege of agriculture at Oka, Quebec, in 
1890; colleges of agriculture at Winni¬ 
peg in 1903, at Ste. Anne de Bellevue 
in 1907 and at Saskatoon in 1909; 
schools of agriculture in Alberta in 
1913 and a college of agriculture at 
Vancouver in 1915. While it would 
be erroneous to infer that agricultural 
research (in any sense of the real 
meaning of the word research) has 
commenced with the very founding of 
these agricultural colleges, neverthe¬ 
less, it conveys an approximate if not 
absolutely correct idea of the time 
when research started in these institu¬ 
tions. 


The Experimental Farms Branch 

The principal agency of agricultural 
research in the Dominion Department 
of Agriculture is the Experimental 
Farms Branch. This system of Ex¬ 
perimental Farms represented as it is 
with branch farms in all the main 
farming regions of Canada, and with 
substations in the, as yet undeveloped, 
territories, undertakes experiments in 
what might be described as the pro¬ 
duction phases of agriculture. At the 
central Experimental Farm at Ottawa 
are located the chiefs of some fourteen 
separate divisions. The planning of 
experimental work and the interpreta¬ 
tion of data are undertaken by the 
chiefs of these divisions in consultation 
with the superintendent of each farm 
and with the director of the system. 
Other branches of the Dominion De¬ 
partment of Agriculture undertake 
research often in connection with the 
administration of certain acts of Parlia¬ 
ment. The Health of Animals Branch, 
through its pathological division, con¬ 
ducts research work on diseases of live 
stock. The Dairy and Cold Storage 
Branch operates a factory at which 
experiments are conducted on the 
manufacture of butter and cheese. 
The Entomological Branch undertakes 
investigations on the control of insect 
pests. 

Under the jurisdiction of the various 
provincial governments, agricultural 
research is conducted at the colleges 
and schools of agriculture. While the 
main duty of these institutions is to 
give instruction to students, and in 
some instances to undertake extension 
work in addition, it is being clearly 
recognized that some research activities 
are indispensable if competent instruc¬ 
tion is to be given. During the early 
stages in the development of agri¬ 
cultural colleges, the professors were 
called upon to give a very large pro- 


84 


The Annals of the American Academy 


portion of their time to teaching and 
extension; in more recent years, how¬ 
ever, a much improved system has 
been introduced which permits those 
men who are to engage in research 
being largely freed from too long hours 
at teaching or extension. 

Achievements of Research 

Research in agriculture must pro¬ 
duce practical results and, what is 
more difficult, it must produce these 
results without delay. Many other 
lines of research, on the other hand, are 
not pressed for immediate returns and 
may continue projects for years with¬ 
out criticism. In agriculture, how¬ 
ever, the public demand without delay 
information which will be of practical 
monetary value to the farmer. Fortu¬ 
nately, the achievements of agricul¬ 
tural research have amply justified all 
the expense which it has incurred 
and have answered all criticism of its 
value. 

Plant improvement, either by hy¬ 
bridization, selection or introduction, 
has very greatly increased the agri¬ 
cultural wealth of Canada. Wheat is 
the most important individual crop in 
Canada; in 1921, out of a total of 
60,000,000 acres of field crops, there 
were over 22,000,000 acres in wheat. 
Agricultural research, through skilful 
hybridization work on the Dominion 
Experimental Farms, has introduced a 
variety of wheat. Marquis, which has 
been so superior to other kinds that on 
the Prairie Provinces, where 93 per 
cent of all the wheat in Canada is 
grown, over one-half is of the Marquis 
variety. Ruby wheat, another variety 
originated by the Dominion Experi¬ 
mental Farms, has been found very 
successful in districts where, on ac¬ 
count of the danger of frost. Marquis 
cannot be grown successfully. The 
Ruby variety, although yielding some¬ 
what less than the Marquis, matures 


about ten days earlier, a factor of vital 
importance in regions where frost is a 
menace. Huron wheat, a further va¬ 
riety originated by the same system, 
gives the largest yields of any wheat 
in Eastern Canada. 

Oats, is the next most important 
crop after wheat and the varieties of 
this crop most commonly grown in 
Canada have been greatly improved 
by selection. The Banner variety of 
oats, which is probably the most ex¬ 
tensively grown variety in Canada, 
has been much improved by selection 
work at the Dominion Experimental 
Farms. The O. A. C. No. 72 variety, 
which is also widely grown, was de¬ 
veloped by the Ontario Agricultural 
College. With barley, the Ontario 
Agricultural College, by its introduc¬ 
tion of O. A. C. No. 21, has produced a 
variety which is now the most exten¬ 
sively grown in Canada. 

With grasses, agricultural research 
has not contributed quite such out¬ 
standing results as it has with grains. 
Timothy, Red Clover, Alsike and 
Alfalfa have been known for many years, 
although wdth the latter crop, agri¬ 
cultural research has indicated what 
strains have been most winter hardy, 
a quality the lack of which has caused 
serious losses to farmers throughout 
Canada. On the Prairie Provinces, 
agricultural research has shown that 
Timothy, Red and Alsike Clover could 
not be grown successfully in such a dry 
climate. Research has introduced, by 
domestications from indigenous plants, 
the Western Rye grass which is now 
the most extensively grown hay crop 
in the Prairie Provinces. 

Value of Research 

Field husbandry practices have been 
greatly improved by research—an im¬ 
provement which has added millions 
of dollars to the agricultural wealth of 
this country. Definite experiments 


Agricultural Research in Canada 


85 


have shown enormous increases in 
yield following early seeding of grain. 
In an experiment, conducted over a 
period of ten years at Ottawa, it was 
found that the best results were secured 
one week after drained land was ready 
to seed—-which time, however, on 
many undrained soils, might corre¬ 
spond to a period when the land could 
first be seeded. By delaying seeding 
one week beyond this period a loss in 
yield has been entailed with wheat of 
30 per cent, with barley of 24 per cent, 
and with oats of 15 per cent. By de¬ 
laying longer, further decreases in 
yield are experienced until, by delay¬ 
ing four weeks, a loss was suffered with 
wheat of 58 per cent and with barley 
and oats, 46 per cent. This experi¬ 
mental work, which was confirmed at 
the Ontario Agricultural College, 
showed that with no additional ex¬ 
pense, greatly increased yields could 
be secured by early seeding alone. 

On the Prairie Provinces, soil mois¬ 
ture is the greatest single factor limiting 
the yields of crops. Experimental 
work conducted in the pioneer stages 
of the development of this country 
showed the great value of the summer 
fallow in conserving moisture and in 
controlling weeds. Carefully con¬ 
ducted experiments have shown the 
most successful methods of handling 
summer fallow and stubble land. In 
Eastern Canada fall ploughing gives 
the best yields of grain, but experi¬ 
mental work soon showed that spring 
ploughing on the prairie gives better 
results. 

Contribution of Agricultural 
Research to Live Stock 

With live stock, agricultural re¬ 
search has also contributed material 
improvement. The improvement of 
stock by the use of pure-bred sires has 
been a very practical means of increas¬ 
ing the returns from the farm. Grad¬ 


ing-up experiments have secured defi¬ 
nite figures showing what could be 
secured with beef and dairy breeds. 

Housing conditions for stock have 
been changed as a result of experi¬ 
mental work. It was formerly thought 
that hogs had to be housed in large, 
close-fitting, expensive buildings, but 
repeated experimental work has shown 
that very small, inexpensive shelters 
give results not only as good but even 
better than such expensive buildings. 
In many parts of the Prairie Provinces 
where the winter climate is severe, it 
was formerly thought absolutely neces¬ 
sary to house beef cattle in barns, but 
feeding experiments have shown that 
outdoor feeding in inexpensive corrals 
give just as good results. 

The feeding of live stock has been 
greatly changed by research. Indeed, 
agricultural research on the feeding of 
animals preceded research on human 
nutrition. When science gave results 
with the lower animals it was tried on 
man. The value of rations arranged 
to provide maintenance or give in¬ 
creases in fiesh or milk was an im¬ 
portant step in the progress of nutri¬ 
tion. The selection, in various parts 
of Canada, of such foods as would give 
the best results has been the work of 
many experiments. 

The diseases of live stock have been 
considerably reduced by research. 
Healthful surroundings, fresh air and 
exercise, on the one hand, have been 
shown repeatedly to be an important 
measure in disease prevention, while, 
on the other hand, more knowledge of 
remedies and vaccines have kept dis¬ 
eases under control. The extensive 
use by farmers of black-leg vaccines 
must be largely ascribed to the early 
work of the Health of Animals Branch 
of the Dominion Department of Agri¬ 
culture which in 1921, the last year of 
distribution to stockmen before leaving 
the manufacture of this material to 


86 


The Annals of the American Academy 


private concerns, distributed 32,500 
doses in Canada. As these doses cost 
five cents each, it is evident that there 
was a large demand from the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. 

Research in Other Subjects 

The foregoing statements have in¬ 
dicated a few of the more noteworthy 
achievements in field crop and live 
stock subjects. They do not embrace, 
by any means, all the important 
successes in these lines and they omit 
entirely the results of research in other 
subjects. In the field of chemistry, 
research has given valuable aid on the 
maintenance of soil fertility, the com¬ 
position of foods, and the content and 
value of commercial fertilizer. In 
entomology valuable information has 
been gathered on the control of in¬ 
jurious insects. In botany research 
has shown how to treat grain for smut 
and potatoes for scab. In horticul¬ 
ture valuable work has been done in 
introducing varieties of fruits and 
vegetables suitable to various parts of 
Canada while the fruit industry has 
been practically saved by scientific 
methods of spraying for injurious 
insects and scale diseases. Experi¬ 
ments in poultry and bees have like¬ 
wise aided their respective branches. 

This article deals only with the 
achievements of agricultural research 
in Canada; it does not refer to achieve¬ 
ments made elsewhere. Fortunately, 
however, the results of successful 
research, no matter where undertaken, 
may be utilized in Canada if they are 
applicable. The discovery of the Bab¬ 
cock Milk Tester, for example, at the 
University of Wisconsin, has had wide¬ 
spread use and value throughout the 
world. It is quite as much the duty 
of research staffs to study, and make 
known where advisable, the results of 
research work undertaken in foreign 
countries, as it is to initiate new work. 


How Information Is Disseminated 

The results of agricultural research 
are given to the public principally by 
publication. All intelligent people 
read and those interested in agriculture 
read agricultural material. This ma¬ 
terial is published in the press and in 
reports, bulletins and pamphlets. The 
Dominion Department of Agriculture 
distributed in 1921 a total of 100 
separate publications amounting to 
approximately 2,250,000 separate 
copies, while the various provincial 
departments also made large distribu¬ 
tions. Many letters requesting in¬ 
formation are received by departments 
of agriculture and agricultural colleges, 
the Dominion Experimental Farm 
System receiving, in 1915, the last 
year when such figures were published, 
a total of 174,298 letters. Colleges and 
schools of agriculture impart the 
results of research to their students 
who use the information on their own 
or their parents’ farms and indirectly, 
by example, cause its dissemination 
throughout the country. Exhibits are 
arranged at the more important agri¬ 
cultural fairs throughout Canada giv¬ 
ing, in a brief but forceful manner, 
some practical findings of science. 
Agricultural representatives give to 
the public often by personal visit, the 
results of the more important lines of 
research. In addition to these direct 
methods of making known the results 
of agricultural research, the public is 
brought in contact with it through acts 
of Parliament. The Dominion De¬ 
partment of Agriculture administers 
no less than eleven acts of Parliament 
the provisions of whicli have been 
largely based on investigational work. 

The Future 

Canada is a great agricultural coun¬ 
try, 50.2 per cent of its population 
living in the country. It possesses 
large areas of uncultivated land whose 


Agricultural Research in Canada 


87 


development would add enormous 
wealth to the country—both urban 
and rural. And while much of this 
land is situated in climates which are 
well known to be favorable to the 
production of crops and animals, there 
are extensive regions of whose soil and 
climate no one can yet say. It 
requires research to discover how such 
land can be handled successfully. 

Moreover, the basis of success in 


agriculture is the success of the in¬ 
dividual farmer. The farm must pay. 
But to make the farm pay many prob¬ 
lems must be solved which the farmer 
alone cannot solve. Scientific study 
is necessary and this study should in¬ 
clude not merely our present problems 
but what may become problems some¬ 
time in the future, so that troubles may 
be avoided rather than corrected after 
they have happened. 


The Fisheries of Canada 

* 

By Edward E. Prince, LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.C. 

Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Ottawa 


F rom very early times the fisheries 
of Canada have been famous. 
Their importance is due to three main 
conditions. 

1. The waters, inland and marine, 
being northerly, are pure and 
cold, and prolific in fish-life. 

2. The species most abundantly occur¬ 
ring are precisely those which are 
most in request in the markets of 
the world, viz., the Gadidse or cod 
family, and the Salmonidse or 
salmon, trout, and whitefish 
family. 

3. The deep-sea and inshore fishing 
grounds are of vast extent, and 
the fresh-water system of inland 
lakes, rivers, and streams almost 
unparalleled. 

Few countries possess waters which 
afford such scope for gigantic com¬ 
mercial fishery enterprises; and the 
numerous picturesque lakes and noble 
angling rivers in the various provinces 
have won for the Dominion her title to 
be called “the Paradise of the Sports¬ 
man.” 

Extent of Fishing Grounds 

Off the Atlantic coast of Canada are 
the famous “Grand Banks” of the 
North Atlantic extending from Labra¬ 
dor to the Gulf’of|Maine, nearly one 
thousand miles, north to south, and 
from a hundred and fifty to three 
hundred miles wide, and embracing an 
area greater than Italy; the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, not less productive of 
fish, having an extent of eighty thou¬ 
sand square miles; the Bay of Fundy, 
over four thousand square miles; while 


the Pacific fishing grounds, off the west 
coast, are variously estimated at from 
one hundred thousand to one hundred 
and fifty thousand square miles. If 
the sea-fishing areas are on this vast 
scale, the inland waters are also of 
enormous extent, and including the 
Canadian portion of the Great Lakes, 
and the countless rivers and lakes 
occurring from east to west, and north 
to the Arctic seaboard, they must ap¬ 
proach a total of about two hundred 
thousand square miles, of which the 
Great Lakes and Georgian Bay con¬ 
stitute one-fifth, or about forty-two 
thousand square miles. More than a 
hundred and twenty fine Canadian 
rivers are over two hundred miles in 
length, some like the Fraser River ex¬ 
ceeding seven hundred miles, others, 
like the Peace and Churchill Rivers, 
being a thousand miles long; but 
the giant Mackenzie is over two 
thousand five hundred miles in length. 
Amongst the most famous salmon 
rivers in the world, and taking first 
place in the annals of sport, are 
such noted streams as the Restigouche, 
Miramichi, St. John, Moisie, Godbout, 
and Romaine, though at least fifty 
other eastern rivers are second only 
in repute. 

Annual Catches of Fish 

The total annual take of fish, fresh¬ 
water and marine, amounts to about 
four hundred and fifty thousand tons, 
and embraces at least fifty comestible 
species. The weight, respectively, of 
ten of the most important kinds is as 
follows, the figures being for the year 
1920 and the year 1921: 


88 


The Fisheries of Canada 


89 



1920 

1921 

Cod. 

99,135 tons 
103,636 “ 

64,236 “ 

22,087 “ 

13,186 “ 

15,851 “ 

19,999 “ 

9,081 “ 

7,117 “ 

2,788 “ 

106,684 tons 
83,684 “ 

43,906 “ 

13,461 “ 

17,873 “ 

11,840 “ 

19,681 “ 

9,204 “ 

7,277 “ 

3,067 “ 

Herring. 

Salmon. 

Haddock. 

Halibut. 

Hake (and pollock). 

Lobster. 

Lake whitefish. 

Mackerel. 

Trout. 



The value of the fisheries has pro¬ 
gressed during the last fifty years as is 
indicated by the following figures 
(each tenth year being selected) from 
1872 to 1912: 


1872 . .. $ 10 , 780,000 

1882 ... 16 , 825,000 

1892 . 18 , 941,000 

1902 . 21 , 960,000 

1912 . 34 , 670,000 


But the last decade (excepting for 
the abnormal increase in the returns 
during the Great War) has shown 
unmistakable stagnation or even ac¬ 
tual decline. The official figures for 
the ten years 1912 to 1921 inclusive 
are as follows: 


1913 . $ 33 , 389,464 

1914 . 33 , 207,748 

1915 . 31 , 264,631 

1916 . 35 , 860,708 

1917 . 52 , 312,044 

1918 . 60 , 250,544 

1919 . 56 , 508,479 

1920 . 49 , 241,339 

1921 . 34 , 931,935 

1922 . 32 , 846,950 


Some fisheries, like the lobster fishery, 
have in thirty years nearly trebled in 
value, yielding in 1890 $1,868,492, and 
in 1920 $3,067,983. The salmon in¬ 
dustry has also shown wonderful ex¬ 
pansion. In 1882 it was valued at 
$1,795,732, and in 1892 it rose to 


$2,242,846, and the last returns (1921) 
showed a value of no less than $5,042,- 
492, but in 1916 the value, owing to the 
unusual war conditions, was recorded 
at nearly $12,000,000, the canned 
salmon industry being mainly respon¬ 
sible for the remarkable increase in the 
total returns. The cod fishery, one of 
the oldest staple fish enterprises of 
Canada, has not developed in the same 
degree, but has remained non-progres¬ 
sive, for, whereas in 1882 its value was 
stated to be $3,778,901, and in 1892 
$4,050,468, it reached a value in 1902 
of only $4,028,788, and in 1921 had 
actually fallen to $3,693,201. Nor 
has the progress of the herring fish¬ 
eries, so supremely important and 
valuable in Britain and Norway, been 
more favorable, for in 1882 the official 
reports give the value as $2,130,000, 
in 1902 as $1,723,098, and in 1921 as 
only $1,110,220. 

No doubt the changing character of 
the demand, in foreign and domestie 
markets, accounts in a large degree for 
the non-progression or even the de¬ 
cline of certain staple fish-products. 
The tropical markets are changing, 
and the salt cod and other dried fish 
for which the demand was formerly 
enormous in South America, the West 
Indies, Spain, Portugal, and the Medi¬ 
terranean countries, are doubtless being 
replaced by canned fish of various 










































90 


The Annals of the American Academy 


kinds, while the salt herring markets 
have also undergone change, and such 
great markets as those of Russia and 
Germany have, owing to the war, 
seriously diminished. 

In future the demand will doubtless 
be for superior cured fish only, and the 
crude methods of the past will require 
to be replaced by the most modern and 
improved curing processes. The Nor¬ 
wegian and Scottish modes of handling 
and of preparation, especially in regard 
to cod and herring, have had the effect 
of raising the standard in all markets, 
excepting the Oriental. Chilled and 
frozen fresh fish, and variously pre¬ 
pared canned fish, are improving the 
public taste in fish-products every¬ 
where. Crudely prepared and badly 
handled pickled and salted dry fish 
have been mainly responsible for the 
decline in demand and the consequent 
diminished production of many staple 
kinds in recent years. 

Number of Fishermen, Hands 
Employed, etc. 

That there has been a marked de¬ 
cline in the number of men engaging 
in the Canadian fisheries is not sur¬ 
prising in view of the cessation of 
growth shown in some most important 
branches in recent years. Twenty-two 
years ago the total number of persons 
employed in all branches of the inland 
and sea fisheries was about one 


hundred thousand (99,269). The num¬ 
ber in 1914 was 98,669, of whom 
71,776 were actual fishermen, but in 
1918 it had fallen to 87,070, 69,350 
being fishermen. In 1919, the num¬ 
bers respectively were 86,160 (67,804 
actual fishermen), and in 1920 the 
total number of employes had fallen to 
75,696, of whom 58,197 were actual 
fishermen. Coincidently the number 
of boats and amount of gear used de¬ 
clined, excepting in a few instances, e.g., 
lobster traps and gear, and the official 
figures given below for 1919 and 1920 
sufficiently illustrate this. 

The number of freezing establish¬ 
ments, and curing and smoking sheds 
has decreased, 827 of the first-named 
being operated in 1919, and 640 in 
1920; while the smoke houses were 
8,092 in 1919, and 7,524 in 1920. 

Capital Invested in Fisheries 

The total amount of capital sunk in 
the fishing industries, in nets, boats, 
vessels and gear, as well as in can¬ 
neries, curing houses, and freezing 
establishments, amounted to $54,694,- 
026 in 1919, as compared with $50,405,- 
478 in 1920, of which latter amount 
four-fifths were invested in the sea¬ 
fishing operations, and one-fifth in the 
fresh-water fisheries. This is about 
six times the amount of capital in¬ 
vested in the fisheries a quarter of a 
century ago; but the value of the 


Number of Fishing Vessels, Nets, Traps, Etc. 

1919 

1920 

Sail boats, etc.’. 

16,874 

12,320 

Gasoline boats. 

15,361 

14,611 

Vessels (sail and gasoline). 

1,191 

1,046 

Steam fishing vessels. 

27 

31 

Steam trawlers. 

10 

9 

Lobster traps. 

1,203,571 

1,290,639 

Gillnets, seines, etc. 

144,605 

94,158 

Trawl lines. 

27,062 

26,599 

Hand lines. 

76,761 

63,029 




















The Fisheries of Canada 


91 


catches annually has, on the average, 
only increased about double, the 
annual returns twenty-five years ago 
being about twenty million dollars as 
compared with returns of thirty million 
dollars or thereby at the present time. 

Export and Domestic Consumption 

It has been frequently claimed that 
fully 75 per cent of the total annual 
production of the Canadian fisheries is 
exported. The amount exported in 
1921 is officially stated to have been 
about 140,000 tons, but as the ship¬ 
ments are for the most part cured, 
canned or frozen, and therefore gutted 
and reduced in weight, the total of 
the fish exports must have amounted 
to at least 400,000 tons of freshly 
caught or “green” fish, and the bal¬ 
ance, say 80,000 tons, represents the 
consumption of fish by the Canadian 
people. The per capita consumption 
in the Dominion amounts therefore to 
about 25 pounds, an amount which 
could be readily doubled were Cana¬ 
dians adequately supplied with fresh 
fish. The amount of fish consumed on 
the Government National Railways in 
1920 exceeded 200,000 pounds, but the 
use of fish by the people generally has 
been hampered by the comparatively 
high price, the irregular and uncertain 
market supply, and, too frequently, 
the inferior condition of the shipments 
due to poor transporta’tion facilities. 

No one who sees the large catches of 
cod, haddock, mackerel, halibut, and 
other kinds, brought into the Atlantic 
fishing ports from Gaspe to Grand 
Manan can question the possibility of 
enormous expansion. There have been 
many examples of success rewarding 
business energy and enterprise along 
the coast of the Maritime Provinces. 
Twenty-five years ago, for example, 
the smoked fish industry (finnan 
haddies, kippers, shredded cod, etc.) 
in Digby County, Nova Scotia, did not 


reach $25,000 per annum, but local en¬ 
terprise has in recent years developed 
this smoked fish business so success¬ 
fully that, at the present time, it 
amounts to almost a million dollars. 
Most of this smoked fish is consumed 
in the Dominion. 

The total value of the fish exports 
amounts to about $30,000,000. It 
was $29,578,392 in 1921, and the 
principal countries to which the fish 
shipments were sent may be given as 
follows: 


United States. $15,779,473 

Cuba. 1,459,988 

Brazil. 1,216,243 

Porto Rico. 1,169,618 

France. 882,360 

Japan. 527,561 

Sweden. 263,598 

China.. 188,394 

British Isles. 7,703,385 

British West Indies . 1,490,008 

Australia. 452,664 

Hong Kong. 444,469 

Straits Settlements. 235,509 

British Guiana. 335,023 

New Zealand. 246,228 


Future of the Fisheries 

That the Canadian fisheries are 
capable of great expansion in the 
future if appropriate measures, private 
or governmental, be taken, is beyond 
question. The famous deep-sea fish¬ 
ing grounds on the Atlantic seaboard, 
exploited for over five centuries by the 
fishing fleets of many European na¬ 
tions,—British, French, Dutch, Span¬ 
ish, Portuguese and Norse, and during 
a more recent period by the United 
States,—still remain the most pro¬ 
ductive areas in the world. Cod, had¬ 
dock, mackerel, halibut, pollock, and 
other esteemed food-fishes, occur in 
amazing plenitude, though there are 
seasonal and periodic fluctuations. 
The inshore fisheries of Quebec and the 
Maritime Provinces still yield abun¬ 
dant catches of lobsters, herring, smelt^ 

















92 


The Annals of the American Academy 


alewives, salmon, oysters, clams, and 
many other marketable kinds, and with 
proper protection and conservation 
there is little danger of depletion. The 
most extensive lobster fishery and 
lobster canning industries in existence 
carried on along the Canadian shores, 
have a value which ranges from four to 
seven million dollars annually. The 
Pacific fisheries, the salmon and hali¬ 
but industries especially, are enor¬ 
mously valuable and productive in 
spite of fluctuations and recent signs of 
decline, and with the adoption of wise 
recuperative steps their future pros¬ 
perity can be assured. 

The fresh-water fisheries, though ex¬ 
cessive exploitation on the Great Lakes, 
Lake of the Woods, and the Mani¬ 
toba lakes, including Lake Winnipeg, 
may have threatened them with de¬ 
pletion, still possess extraordinary pos¬ 
sibilities, for the vast inland seas in the 
remoter regions of the Canadian North¬ 
west have never been commercially 
utilized. They are abundantly stocked 
with the finest whitefish, lake-trout, 
sturgeon, etc. Great Bear Lake, Great 
Slave Lake, Lakes Athabasca, Rein¬ 
deer, Dubawnt, and Baker, taken 
together, have a total area of no less 
than 30,000 square miles, and there 
are innumerable lakes and streams 
abounding with fish, over the whole 
of the vast territory embraced by the 
Mackenzie, Keewatin and Ungava 
districts, and, it may be added, the 
Yukon Territory. The fishery pos¬ 
sibilities of Hudson Bay (whose area is 
about 400,000 square miles) and the 
long stretch of Arctic waters, extending 
from Demarcation Point, at the Alaska 
Boundary, to Cape Chidley, in Hudson 
Straits, a distance of more than 2,000 
miles, present immense possibilities, 
but the only aquatic resources ex¬ 
ploited in the Polar seas have been 
whales, walrus, seals, etc., all of which 
show serious signs of impairment. 


The Canadian Arctic Expedition 19IS¬ 
IS found evidence of schools of sea 
herring, and if these are abundant, the 
plenitude of other valuable species is 
more than a probability. 

For the full development in the 
future of the Canadian harvest of the 
waters it is essential that there should 
be 

1. Greatly improved railroad trans¬ 

portation facilities. Special fast 
fish-trains and fish refrigeration 
cars. 

2. Modern up-to-date fish markets in 

every center of population. 

3. Better fish wharf accommodation, 

and more careful and expeditious 
handling of fish; also the adoption 
of the best storing, curing, and 
canning methods. 

4. The use and popularization of 

numerous kinds of excellent fish 
not at present brought to market. 
A variety of Canadian flat-fishes. 
Pacific red cod, pilchards, fresh¬ 
water eels, and lake cusk could be 
utilized, and would add to the 
national fish supply. 

5. Frequent publicity campaigns and 

the wide circulation of fish- 
cookery hand books. 

6. Greater enterprise in pushing Cana¬ 

dian fish and fish products in 
foreign markets, and in new 
markets, especially in South 
America and the Orient. 

Australia and New Zealand are 
looking for fish from Canada if equal 
to the high standard of fish-products 
now being shipped from Britain, Ger¬ 
many and France. 

Government Conservation 
Methods 

At Confederation in 1867 a Depart¬ 
ment of Marine and Fisheries was 
created under a cabinet minister, and 


The Fisheries of Canada 


93 


a very complete system of protection, 
conservation, and administration was 
adopted, with great benefit to the fish¬ 
eries generally. By an Imperial Privy 
Council Judgment in 1898 very im¬ 
portant rights, especially proprietary 
rights in the fisheries, were declared to 
be vested in each province, and recent 
changes have been brought about, 
comparable to the “State Rights” in 
fisheries, in the United States. * Certain 
responsibilities re Fish Culture, Official 
Supervision, License and Lease Issue, 
etc., are now being assumed by some 
of the provinces, but the task of 
supreme supervision and jurisdiction 
will continue to be vested in the 
Federal Government at Ottawa. 

The principal features of the Cana¬ 
dian system of administering the 
fisheries, whether carried out by the 
Federal or the Provincial Fishery De¬ 
partments are: 

1. Fishery regulations, providing for 

closed seasons, protection of 
natural spawning beds and pres¬ 
ervation of immature fish, limita¬ 
tion of fishing gear, prohibition 
of pollutions and river obstruc¬ 
tions, etc. 

2. Fishery leases and licenses, with 

conditions attached. 

3. Bounties to deep-sea fishermen. 

4. A Fisheries’ Intelligence Bureau, 

which keeps the fishermen in¬ 
formed as to the movements of 
fish, and available bait supplies. 

5. Improvement in curing and can¬ 

ning methods under a Fish In¬ 
spection Act and the Meat and 
Canned Foods Act. 


6. Experimental fish-drying sheds, 

and fish guano and oil works. 

7. Government instruction along the 

coast in preparing, salting, and 
curing fish, and in the latest 
scientific canning methods. 

8. An extensive scheme of fish-cul¬ 

ture, hatcheries and stocking 
operations. 

9. Publicity and educational system 

by lectures and demonstrations 
and issue of pamphlets and 
publications on fish life and the 
promotion of the fisheries. 

10. Government rebates and assistance 

to encourage cheap and rapid 
transportation of fish from the 
landing ports to interior cities. 
Special fish cars under this 
scheme have been run from the 
Atlantic coast and from certain 
Pacific fishing ports to inland 
centers. 

11. A system of state-aided fish and 

bait freezers inaugurated many 
years ago with the object of 
helping the fishermen and pro¬ 
moting the industry. 

12. Fishery research stations, under 

the Biological Board of Canada 
composed of professors and sci¬ 
entific experts, mainly nomi¬ 
nated by the universities, in 
which fishery investigations of 
the highest practical value are 
conducted. Research expedi¬ 
tions have been carried on upon 
the deep sea and on inland 
waters. The results are pub¬ 
lished under the title Contribu¬ 
tions to Canadian Biology. 


Bibliography 

1852—M. H. Perley, Fisheries of New 1867— Shore and Deep Sea Fisheries of 
Brunswick, Fredericton, N. B., Nova Scotia, King’s Printer, Hali- 

1852. fax, 1867. 

1864—J. M. Lemoine, Les PScheries du 1877—Memoranda on Can Fisheries, Hali- 
Canada, Quebec, 1863. fax International Comm., 1877, 


94 


The Annals of the American Academy 


1879—J. M. Jones, List of Nova Scotia 
FisheSy Proc. N. S. Inst, of Nat. 
Sci., Volume V. 

1883— Fisheries of Canada, L. Z. Joncas, 
W. Clowes & Sons, London, 1883. 
1892— Great Lakes Fish and Fisheries, R. 

Ramsay Wright, Ontario Fish 
Comm., 1892. 

1897— Fisheries of Canada, E. E. Prince, 
British Association Handbook, To¬ 
ronto. 

1909— British Association Handbook, Win¬ 
nipeg, Fisheries of Manitoba. 

1908— Checklist of Fishes of Ontario, C. W. 

Nash, Department of Education, 
Toronto, 1908. 

1912— Sea Fisheries of Canada, Conserva¬ 
tion Commission, Ottawa, 1912. 


1916— The Oyster Fishery and Oyster Cul¬ 
ture, Ernest Kemp, Marine & 
Fisheries, Ottawa. 

1918— Canada’s Fisheries, pp, 127-134, 
Dom. Roy. Com., H. M. Sta¬ 
tionery Office, London, 1918. 

1920— The Sea Fisheries, J. T. Jenkins, 

Constable & Son, London. 

1921— Canada'’s Fisheries, E. E. Prince, 

London Times Book of Canada, 
1921. 

1922— Fisheries of Maritime Provinces, 

E. E. Prince, Industrial Canada 
Office, Toronto. 

1923— Review of Fishery Investigations 

under Biological Board of Canada, 
Can. Manuf. Assoc. 1923. 


The Forests and Forest Industries of Canada 

By C. D> Howe, M.S., Ph.D. 

Dean of the Faculty of Forestry,. University of Toronto 


General Conditions 

HE land area of Canada is 3.6 
million square miles. Since much 
of the area has never been thoroughly 
explored, only estimates can be made 
of the extent to which it is covered by 
forests. Making deductions for the 
estimated extent of the barren lands 
in the extreme north, the prairies and 
plains of the central region, the moun¬ 
tainous areas above tree line in the 
west, and deductions for the known 
extent of land under agriculture out¬ 
side of the prairie region, we derive the 
statement that approximately one 
half the total land area is without tree 
growth. Furthermore, this enormous 
area of 1,800,000 square miles of forests 
must be still further delimited, when 
considered from the standpoint of com¬ 
mercial material, since there are very 
extensive areas in the subarctic and 
subalpine regions which do not support 
trees in sufficient quantities or of 
sufficient size to make their utilization 
profitable, even for pulp wood. Such 
eliminations would reduce the total 
forest area, as given above, by one 
half and would thus give the estimated 
area of commercial forest (containing 
trees of pulpwood and sawlog size) as 
900,000 square miles. A still further 
reduction must be made on account of 
the destruction of standing timber by 
forest fires, and again it is well within 
the limits of probability to make the 
divisor the figure 2. In other words, 
during the past seventy-five years at 
least one half of the commercial for¬ 
ested area has been burned. It takes 
that length of time under the average 
forest conditions in the north country 


to make a spruce tree of pulpwood size, 
that is, six inches in diameter on the 
stump. Therefore, the burned areas 
as a whole do not now contain mer¬ 
chantable trees. The fact that the 
majority of such areas have been 
burned not once only, but several 
times, removes them still farther from 
the merchantable class. 

Thus, we come by a series of elimina¬ 
tions to 450,000 square miles as the 
area in Canada today, yielding com¬ 
mercial timber, that is, sawlogs and 
pulpwood. The sawlog producing 
forests are approximately equally dis¬ 
tributed between the east (Ontario, 
Quebec and the Maritime Provinces) 
and the west (British Columbia and 
Alberta), while the pulpwood pro¬ 
ducing forests are continuous from 
coast to coast, extending northward of 
the sawlog forests. 

It will be seen that the present 
stands of commercial timber cover 
only 12.5 per cent of the total area of 
the country and that this percentage 
is doubled by including the potential 
timberlands represented by the burned 
areas. 

Characteristics of the Forests 

The heavily forested portions of 
Canada, as in other countries, are in 
the regions of greatest rainfall, or in 
other words, they are relatively near 
the coasts. The forests diminish in 
density and in number of component 
species as one passes towards the in¬ 
terior into areas of decreasing rainfall 
from either the Atlantic or the Pacific 
coast. The commercial timber is 
therefore to be found in two widely 
separated regions with the plains and 



1 


96 


The Annals of the American Academy 


prairies between. There is a subarctic 
transcontinental belt of forest, to be 
sure, but its character and inaccessi¬ 
bility make its present value doubt¬ 
ful. 

• 

The precipitation in the Atlantic 
forest region is fairly evenly distributed 
throughout the year with no protracted 
period of drought, and the forest con¬ 
sists of both broad-leaved and conif¬ 
erous trees (hardwoods and soft¬ 
woods). On the other hand, the pre¬ 
cipitation in the Pacific forest region 
mainly comes in the winter, non¬ 
growing months, with prolonged peri¬ 
ods of drought in the summer growing 
season. This condition of affairs 
practically excludes the broad-leaved 
trees (hardwoods) and they are repre¬ 
sented by poplars and alders growing 
in the flood plains of the streams, 
where the roots can reach the ground 
water level. The forests of the west, 
then, are prevailing coniferous, the 
broad-leaved element making up less 
than one per cent in their composition. 
Over 80 per cent of the forests of 
British Columbia, for example, consist 
of cedar, fir, spruce and hemlock. 

Since the forested area of Canada 
extends from 42° north latitude to far 
within the Arctic circle in the Mac¬ 
kenzie River valley, there is great vari¬ 
ation in the character of the forest as 
it extends northward. The southern¬ 
most portion of Canada, familiarly 
known as the Niagara peninsula, lying 
between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, 
has the climate and flora'of the Ohio 
valley. The basis of the forest, which 
has now almost entirely made way for 
agriculture, was maple, oak and hick¬ 
ory, with tulip, magnolia, black wal¬ 
nut, hackberry, chestnut as secondary 
species. 

North and east of the extension of 
the southern hardwood forest into 
Canada we find a forest similar to that 
of northern Michigan, consisting of 


sugar maple, yellow birch, basswood, 
and elm. It occupies particularly the 
central portion of Ontario. The east¬ 
ern portion of Ontario, the lower 
portion of the Ottawa valley on the 
Quebec side, the portion of Quebec 
south of the St. Lawrence River, with 
the exception of the Gaspe region. 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, have 
a climate and a forest similar to that 
of the Adirondack and northern New 
England region, with yellow birch, 
sugar maple, beech, hemlock and red 
spruce as the dominant trees. 

In ascending the tributaries of the 
Ottawa River on the Quebec side and 
the tributaries of the St. Lawrence 
River from the north, the beech, maple, 
hemlock and red spruce gradually drop 
out and are replaced by yellow birch 
or paper birch and the coniferous ele¬ 
ment increases until it becomes domi¬ 
nant. Thus the headwaters of these 
streams are in the control of forests 
consisting of black spruce, balsam, 
white spruce and jack pine. In other 
words, the prevailing coniferous type 
of the James Bay-Hudson Bay region 
flows over into the St. Lawrence 
drainage basin. This tendency is 
more pronounced as one goes eastward 
until the softwood type above men¬ 
tioned reaches the St. Lawrence River 
in lower Quebec. 

Throughout Eastern Canada, as de¬ 
scribed above, there are frequent and 
extensive outcrops of sandy soils 
deposited in glacial lakes that at one 
time or another occupied much of the 
region. These sand plains were oc¬ 
cupied by white pine and red pine, 
mostly the former, and they were com¬ 
parable in extent, in yield and in 
quality of timber to the famous 
pineries of Michigan. For over one 
hundred years white pine was the lead¬ 
ing timber product of Canada, and it 
has contributed more to the wealth of 
the country than all the other trees 


The Forests and Forest Industries of Canada 


97 


combined. Its day, however, is past, 
and spruce now leads. 

Estimates of Forest Supplies 

The estimates of Canada’s commer¬ 
cial timber resources are based mainly 
upon reconnaissance surveys and there¬ 
fore cannot be considered as estimates 
in the technical meaning of the term. 
Perhaps the most reliable of these is 
that for British Columbia, made by 
the Commission of Conservation. The 
same organization made a report upon 
the forest conditions of Nova Scotia 
and Saskatchewan. The province of 
New Brunswick has in progress a very 
careful and detailed estimate of its 


standing timber. Both the Dominion 
Forestry Branch and the Provincial 
Forestry Branch have been at work for 
several years on a timber survey of 
Ontario. The Forest Service of Quebec 
is methodically gathering data on the 
timber supplies of that province. 

Generalizing from the information as 
far as obtainable from the various 
provinces, the Dominion Forestry 
Branch has compiled the data in the 
table given below. In it no allowance 
has been made for non-accessibility or 
for deterioration in quality due to over¬ 
maturity or insect and fungus depreda¬ 
tions. Under the circumstances, then, 
the figures given are only fair guesses. 


Estimate of the Forest Resources of Canada 



Saw Material 

(In Million Feet Board Measure) 

PULPWOOD 

(In Million Cords) 

Softwood 

Hardwood 

Total 

Spruce 

Balsam 

W. Hemlock 

Jack pine 
E. Hemlock 
Poplar 

Total 

Quebec. 

80,000 

10,000 

90,000 

200 

100 

300 

Ontario. 

49,500 

5,500 

55,000 

185 

65 

250 

New Brunswick. 

9,000 

6,000 

15,000 

21 

5 

26 

Nova Scotia. 

6,500 

3,500 

10,000 

25 

6 

31 

Eastern Canada . . . 

145,000 

25,000 

170,000 

431 

176 

607 

Alberta. 

11,500 

7,000 

18,500 

63 

129 

192 

Saskatchewan. 

4,000 

4,000 

8,000 

31 

117 

148 

Manitoba. 

3,500 

3,000 

6,500 

26 

54 

80 

Prairie Provinces. . . 

19,000 

14,000 

33,000 

120 

300 

420 

British Columbia. 

350,000 

750 

350,750 

250 

20 

270 

Total. 

514,000 

39,750 

553,750 

801 

496 

1,297 


Lumber Production 


The table above sets forth the aver¬ 
age production for a five-year period 
in Canada, its value and the extent to 
which the five leading kinds of tim¬ 
ber have contributed. Then follows a 
statement for each province, its rank 


in the Dominion and the five leading 
timber species and their rank within 
the province. 

It will be seen that spruce is the 
leading timber tree in the Dominion, 
the amount of its cut being nearly as 


8 

















































98 


The Annals of the American Academy 


great as that of any other two species 
combined. The term spruce, however, 
includes black spruce, red spruce, 
sitka spruce and white spruce. Until 
approximately twenty years ago white 
pine, which now has third place, led in 
production. Ontario has produced the 


largest amount of pine for a great many 
years, and likewise, also, Quebec has 
led in spruce production. 

British Columbia, Ontario and Que¬ 
bec are the chief lumber producing 
provinces. They fluctuate in leader¬ 
ship. In the past ten years British 


Lumber Production 
Average 1916-1920 inclusive 


Canada 

3,930,252 M board feet * 
$107,224,031 value 


Leading Species 

M Board 

Per 


Feet 

Cent 

Spruce. 

1,355,081 

34.5 

Douglas fir. 

742,871 

18.9 

White pine.. 

688,201 

17.5 

Hemlock. 

265,839 

6.7 

Cedar. 

133,156 

3.4 


British Columbia 

1,168,345 M board feet—29.5% 
$30,000,642 value 


Douglas fir. 

742,810 

63.6 

Cedar. 

103,086 

8.8 

Spruce. 

96,175 

8.2 

Western yellow pine.... 

70,178 

6.1 

Tamarack. 

42,584 

3.6 


Ontario 

1,009,495 M board feet—25.7% 
$30,855,008 value 


WTiite pine. 

533,367 

53.0 

Hemlock. 

_ 105,175 

10.4 

Spruce. 

. . . . ■ 93,668 

9.2 

Red pine. 

65,827 

6.5 

Maple. 

24,567 

2.4 


Quebec 

857,643 M board feet—21.8% 
$23,736,412 value 


Spruce. 

509,117 

59, 

4 

White pine. 

89,474 

10. 

.4 

Balsam fir. 

59,125 

6, 

,9 

Hemlock. 

52,068 

6, 

,1 

Birch. 

41,241 

4, 

,8 


New Brunswick 

512,631 M board feet—12.1% 
$13,349,883 value 


Spruce. 

371,513 

72.0 

Balsam fir. 

46,366 

9.0 

Wdiite pine. 

38,931 

7.6 

Hemlock. 

19,096 

3.7 

Cedar. 

11,513 

2.3 


Nova Scotia 

226,510 M board feet—5.8% 
$5,455,082 value 


Leading Species 

M Board 

Per 


Feet 

Cent 

Spruce. 

140,816 

62.2 

Hemlock. 

32,443 

14.2 

White pine. 

12,125 

5.4 

Birch. 

9,579 

4.2 

Balsam fir. 

7,437 

3.3 


Saskatchewan 

69,061 M board feet—1.8% 
$1,749,799 value 

Spruce. 68,683 99.0 

Tamarack. 259 .... 

Poplar aspen. 86 .... 


Manitoba 

50,949 M board feet—1.3% 
$1,209,869 value 


Spruce. 

48,517 

95.2 

Poplar aspen. 

509 

1.0 

Tamarack. 

339 

0.7 

Jack pine. 

216 

0.4 


Alberta 

30,353 M board feet—0.8% 
$690,264 value 


Spruce. 

24,112 

79.4 

Jack pine. 

2,599 

8.6 

Poplar aspen. 

333 

1.1 

Tamarack. 

105 

0.3 

Poplar balsam. 

75 

0.2 


Prince Edward Island 

7,166 M board feet—0.2% 
$172,473 value 


Spruce. 

2,584 

36.1 

Balsam fir. 

1,815 

25.3 

Birch. 

503 

7.0 

Hemlock. 

288 

4.0 

Beech. 

187 

2.6 


* M = thousand board feet. 
















































The Forests and Forest Industries of Canada 


99 


Columbia has led five times, Ontario 
three times, and Quebec twice. 

The value of lumber, lath and 
shingles produced in one year is $150,- 
000,000. Lumber means boards and 
deals, dimension stock—^not the fin¬ 
ished product, as in the case of paper. 
The minor industries, which depend 
entirely upon wood, produce products 
to the value of $60,000,000 annually. 
They have an invested capital of over 
$50,000,000. They employ 13,000 
people and pay annually in wages 
around $14,000,000. 

To these should be added the in¬ 
dustries that depend in essential part, 
but not entirely, upon forest products. 
These, such as the horse-drawn and 
motor-drawn vehicles, produce each 
year products valued at $86,553,314. 
The capital invested totals over $65,- 
000,000. The employees number over 
9,000, to whom are paid wages amount¬ 
ing to nearly $12,000,000. 

Going back to the lumber industry 
proper, we find that its invested 
capital reaches $250,000,000. It em¬ 
ploys 55,000 men, and gives them 
$60,000,000 in wages annually. 

PuLPWOOD Production 

From the tables following it will be 
seen that nearly three fourths of the 
pulp and paper production is located 
in Quebec and Ontario, and that prac¬ 
tically one half of the pulpwood is cut 
in the province of Quebec. Most of 
the raw pulpwood exported to the 
United States comes from Quebec. 
Ontario manufactures a much larger 
percentage of her product into paper 
and thus keeps the larger portion of 
the value of her pulpwood products at 
home. 

While the lumber production has 
been fairly uniform for the past thirty 
years, the pulpwood, and pulp and 
paper production have increased enor¬ 
mously. This is undoubtedly chiefly due 


to the legislation in the various prov¬ 
inces around the years 1898 to 1900, 
prohibiting the export of unmanu¬ 
factured pulpwood from Crown lands. 
This brought the mills to Canada. 
Thirty years ago the value of the pulp 
and paper exported did not exceed 
$200. In 1920 the Canadian mills 
furnished the United States $62,000,- 
000 worth of pulp and $63,000,000 of 
newsprint. The total value of the 
manufactured pulp and paper products 
is $250,000,000. The various com¬ 
panies have invested in the business 
some $375,000,000. They employ 
33,000 men in the mills and in the 
forest and they pay them each year 
$40,000,000 in wages. In fact, the 
making of pulp and paper is the largest 
manufacturing industry in Canada. 

Ownership and Regulations 

The forests of Canada, with the ex¬ 
ception of the farm wood-lots and a 
comparatively small area of timber- 
lands in private holdings, are the 
property of the Crown as represented 
by the Dominion and the several pro¬ 
vincial governments. The Dominion 
Government owns the forest lands in 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, 
and the so-called Railway Belt in 
British Columbia, a strip of land 20 
miles wide, comprising about 11 million 
acres, on each side of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway. The total forest area 
indicated above is approximately 117 
million acres, of which 22 million 
acres have been organized into forest 
reserves and are administered by the 
Forestry Branch at Ottawa, whose staff 
includes twenty technically trained 
foresters. 

The forests of British Columbia, 
outside of the Railway Belt, those of 
Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick 
are administered with reference to the 
carrying out of the timber cutting 
regulations and fire protection by the 


100 


The Annals of the American Academy 


respective provincial forestry organiza¬ 
tions, which employ in all some sixty 
foresters and several thousand fire 
rangers. 

The Dominion and the various pro¬ 
vincial governments by tender or 
public auction sell the right to cut 


timber. The purchaser of such rights, 
usually before his woods operations 
begin, pays a certain sum, called a 
bonus, for the standing timber, and in 
addition, he pays a fixed rate, called 
dues, per thousand board feet or per 
cord, for what he actually cuts. The 


PuLPwooD Production 
Average 1916-1920 inclusive 



Canada 



Quebec 



2,257,224 cords * 



1,125,914 cords—49.8% 



$26,712,198 value 



$12,382,418 value 


Leading Species Cords 

Per Cent 

Leading Species Cords 

Per Cent 

Spruce.. . . 

. 1,636,367 

72.4 

Spruce.. . . 

. 747,840 

66.4 

Balsam fir. 

. 473,551 

20.9 

Balsam fir. 

. 364,949 

32.4 

Hemlock. . 

. 113,335 

4.9 

Hemlock. . 

. 4,584 

0.4 

Jack pine.. 

. 20,032 

0.9 

Poplar. . . . 

. 3,262 

0.3 

Poplar.... 

. 7,686 

0.3 





Ontario 



British Columbia 



788,304 cords—34.9% 



201,712 cords—8.9% 



$10,617,628 value 



$2,312,635 value 


Spruce. . . . 

. 713,195 

90.4 

Hemlock. . 

. 96,063 

47.6 

Balsam fir. 

. 45,815 

5.8 

Spruce. . . . 

. 84,427 

41.8 

Jack pine.. 

. 14,678 

1.8 

Balsam fir. 

. 13,253 

6.5 

Hemlock. . 

. 12,116 

1.5 

Poplar.... 

. 1,054 

0.5 

Poplar.... 

. 2,499 

0.3 





New Brunswick 



Nova Scotia 



123,328 cords—5.5% 



17,965 cords—0.8% 



$1,247,919 value 



$147,597 value 


Spruce.... 

. 74,197 

60.1 

Spruce.... 

. 16,708 

93.0 

Balsam fir. 

. 48,448 

39.3 

Balsam fir. 

. 1,085 

6.0 


Pulp and Paper Production 
Average 1917-1921 inclusive 


Canada 

$148,611,911 value 


Tons Per Cent 

Pulp. 773,185 

Paper. 1,029,908 

Ontario 

$57,679,926 value 

Pulp. 189,662 24.5 

Paper. 475,242 46.1 

New Brunsivick 
$6,358,278 value 

Pulp. 70,205 9.1 

Paper. . 


Quebec 

$69,581,166 value 

Tons Per Cent 

Pulp. 449,618 58.1 

Paper. 438,042 42.6 

British Columbia 
$14,385,143 value 

Pulp. 45,857 5.9 

Paper. 116,420 11.3 

Nova Scotia 
$569,145 value 

Pulp. 17,843 2.3 

Paper. 


* In addition to this the average e.xport to the United States in the period was 1,150,653 cords, 
of which the value averaged $10,832,125. 






































The Forests and Forest Industries of Canada 


101 


amount of bonus naturally depends 
upon the quality of the timber and its 
accessibility. As high as $20 per thou¬ 
sand feet, Doyle scale, has been paid 
for white pine. The dues in a province 
vary with the different classes of 
timber, and those levied on the same 
class of timber vary in the different 
provinces from fifty cents to $3.50 per 
thousand board feet and from ten 
cents to one dollar a cord for pulpwood. 
In addition to the above, the operator 
pays an annual ground rent for the use 
of the land, in most cases at the rate of 
one cent per acre as well as a fire pro¬ 
tection tax, usually also about one cent 
per acre. 

The gross revenues derived from the 
forests in 1921 were as follows: Ontario, 
$3,763,440; Quebec, $3,035,360; New 
Brunswick, $1,081,418; British Colum¬ 
bia, $1,544,251; Dominion forest re¬ 
serves, $248,719: a total for the whole 
country of $9,673,188. 

The license to cut sawlogs is renew¬ 
able each year in Ontario and Quebec; 
at a period of twenty years in New 
Brunswick and in perpetuity in British 
Columbia. In the pulpwood opera¬ 
tions, however, where both the initial 
investment and cost of maintenance is 
much greater, the term of the license 


usually extends for a period of twenty 
years. Furthermore, the Government 
in all cases reserves the right to change 
regulations and adjust dues at its 
discretion, but in actual usage this is 
done only at intervals of three or five 
years and only at the expiration of at 
least a year from publication of in¬ 
tentions. 

Reforestation 

Provisions for artificial reforestation 
are being developed on a large scale in 
Ontario and Quebec. For twenty 
years both provinces have furnished 
planting material at cost of transporta¬ 
tion to farmers wishing to plant up 
waste areas, and about 250 acres a 
year are planted in this manner in each 
province. Ontario has recently em¬ 
barked upon a plan to reforest 10,000 
acres of waste lands each year for a 
period of sixty years. There are al¬ 
ready seedlings enough in the provin¬ 
cial nursery for the first year’s instal¬ 
ment. Several large pulp and paper 
companies are also engaged in forest 
planting, one of them at the rate of 500 
acres a year. The Dominion Forestry 
Branch has distributed about 40,000,- 
000 forest tree seedlings in the prairies 
during the last twenty years, mostly 
for shelter belt planting. 


The Mineral Resources of Canada 

By Balmer Neilly, B.A.Sc., M.E. 

Secretary, Ontario Mining Association, Toronto 


We live in a country whose greatest per¬ 
manent material sources of wealth are its 
soil and its minerals. But few people 
realize, however, that not more than about 
fifteen per cent of its entire surface is 
suitable for profitable cultivation. Of the 
two largest provinces generally considered 
as mainly agricultural, the proportion is 
probably less than ten per cent. I shall 
endeavor to show that the remaining 
eighty-five per cent contains mineral 
treasures of inconceivable value. 

T he above quotation is taken from 
the Presidential Address ^ delivered 
by Dr. C. V. Corless to The Canadian 
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 
in March, 1922. Gradually and logi¬ 
cally he develops his ideas and in a 
practical and masterly manner leads 
the reader to the conclusion that the 
assertion above quoted is a reasonable 
and just forecast. 

With an area so large and a popula¬ 
tion so meager, scattered mainly 
along the southern boundary, is it any 
wonder that geological information 
is obtained slowly and at great ex¬ 
pense. Fortunately the governments, 
provincial and federal, have succeeded 
in attracting to their service a brilliant 
group of geologists and gradually 
the general details are being worked 
out, and as the grant plan unfolds, 
we begin to gain some conception of 
the mineral possibilities that as yet 
have been investigated here and there 
and only on the outer margin. 

The Pre-Cambrian Laurentian 
Shield 

The most striking feature is un¬ 
doubtedly the great pre-Cambrian 

1 Transactions of The Canadian Institute of 
Mining and Metallurgy for 1922. 


Laurentian shield extending far south 
and nearly surrounding Hudson Bay. 
This, conceded to be the greatest 
single exposure of basement formation 
on the earth’s surface, has an area 
of approximately 2,000,000 square 
miles, or over half the total area of 
Canada.^ 

For years our leading geologists have 
pointed to this vast shield as the re¬ 
pository of great mineral wealth and 
experience is confirming this prediction 
at a rate and in quantity far beyond 
even the expectations of those who 
were at times considered over-optimis¬ 
tic. 

With the exception of a small ex¬ 
tension into New York State and 
another into the states of Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, all this 
pre-Cambrian area is Canadian. 

It is natural that the first develop¬ 
ment should take place on its southern 
boundary and that the process of 
penetration should be slow. Capital, 
means of transportation and knowledge 
are obtained in a new country with 
diflficulty, but, nevertheless, progress 
has been permanent and the production 
records to date have laid a foundation 
upon which one can fairly forecast 
an accelerating rate of activity and 
development. 

As an illustration of what has been 
demonstrated, one can point to the fact 
that although that portion of this 
area lying in the United States is 
perhaps less than three per cent, it 
has given birth to the Lake Superior 
iron mines that have played so large 
a part in establishing that country’s 

2 Report of Royal Commission on the Mineral 
Resources of Ontario, published by the Ontario 
Department of Mines, Toronto. 

102 


The Mineral Resources of Canada 


103 


prominence in the iron and steel in¬ 
dustry. 

In addition to iron there was de¬ 
veloped the great Michigan copper 
mines. These mines have been pro¬ 
ducing copper for well over half a 
century and under normal conditions 
even at the present time produce more 
than two hundred million pounds of 
copper annually. 

Passing north into our own country, 
we can only here and there raise the 
curtain that for lack of knowledge 
covers a great unprospected and un¬ 
known mineral territory. Passing the 
early copper discoveries at Bruce 
Mines,^ we come to the Sudbury Dis¬ 
trict that, under stress of the require¬ 
ments of the Allied Powers, produced 
in the year 1918, over 90,000,000 
pounds of nickel and over 47,000,000 
pounds of copper.^ Nor was this a 
mere flash in the pan, for after pro¬ 
ducing metal to the gross value of 
over $400,000,000,® it has been esti¬ 
mated that the known reserves de¬ 
veloped by the two largest producers 
are in excess of 100,000,000 tons of 
ore.® 

Discovery of Silver 

In 1903 came the discovery of silver 
in the Cobalt area. Since that time 
the mines of that district have pro¬ 
duced over 10,000 tons of silver;^ 
practically the world’s requirements 
of cobalt, and over 60,000,000 pounds 
of arsenic. A recent report of the 

2 Report of Royal Commission on the Mineral 
Resources of Ontario, published by the Ontario 
Department of Mines, Toronto. 

^ Report of the Ontario Department of Mines, 
covering operations during 1918. 

^ Canada Year Book 1920, published by the 
Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa, Ont. 

® Report of the Royal Ontario Nickel Com¬ 
mission 1917, published by the Department 
of Mines, Toronto. 

^ 1922 Preliminary Report by Cyril Knight 
on the Cobalt Camp, published by the Ontario 
Department of Mines, Toronto. 


Department of Mines for Ontario, 
while conceding that the apex of silver 
production in the Cobalt area is well 
past, predicts that mining will con¬ 
tinue in the district for perhaps 
another century. 

From the success obtained in silver 
mining came a new faith and a growing 
interest which resulted in the discovery 
of the Porcupine gold area in 1909, 
and shortly after in the discovery 
of the Kirkland Lake gold camp. 

Porcupine was once wiped out by 
a great forest fire and the development 
of both camps was naturally retarded 
by war conditions. But they have 
made wonderful progress. While de¬ 
velopment work has been confined 
to an horizon almost entirely above 
the one thousand foot level, one mine 
now occupies nearly, if not the first 
place, on the list of the world’s great 
gold producers and production is 
rapidly increasing. Work carried on 
during the past year has not only ob¬ 
tained excellent results for the pro¬ 
ducers, but will result in early additions 
to the list of producing mines. 

Other Deposits 

Iron deposits have been found over 
large areas contiguous to Lake Su¬ 
perior, but unfortunately as yet there 
is a dearth of high grade ore. 

Other mining camps—smaller, but 
of real promise—are springing up in 
the districts surrounding the larger 
mines. Gold and copper ore bodies 
of importance are being developed in 
northern Manitoba ® and new dis¬ 
coveries are reported in northern 
Quebec.® 

On the whole margin of this area 
under consideration, there is increasing 
activity. If, then, such satisfactory 
results have been obtained by working 

* Transactions of The Canadian Institute of 
Mining and Metallurgy, Vol. XXIV, 1921. 

® Report of the Quebec Bureau of Mines. 



104 


The Annals of the American Academy 


over so small a portion, Canadian 
optimism and faith can be reasonably 
defended when they point north to 
the great undiscovered and little 
known country from where the geolo¬ 
gists, few but reputable, have brought 
reports of areas offering opportunities 
equal to any of the better known and 
successfully developed districts. 

Geological Characteristics 

Passing next to the Pacific Highland, 
we view that area extending from the 
Rocky Mountain foothills to the 
Pacific Ocean and north from the 
49th parallel for 1,500 miles, containing 
approximately 550,000 square miles. 
The reader is more or less familiar 
with the gold production of the Klon¬ 
dike, but since the days of the northern 
rush to that district, great gold, silver, 
copper, lead and zinc mines have been 
developed and the results obtained 
have won such wide publicity that 
names need not be mentioned in an 
article of this length.^® Platinum has 
been discovered. Promising iron ore 
deposits have been located and the 
coal deposits will be discussed under 
a separate heading. 

This same geological area extends 
from the Yukon, south and into Mex¬ 
ico. The production of precious met¬ 
als in Mexico dates from the dawn of 
North American history and today 
mining is still the predominating 
industry of that country. In 1849 
the California gold rush started. The 
wonderful results obtained carried 
colonization west across the prairies 
and built up a mining section in the 
western part of the United States that 
has gained world recognition. 

So far as one can judge by careful 
study, there is every reason to believe 
that Canada, proportionate to her 

Report of the Department of Mines of 
British Columbia. 


relative area, has equal opportunities 
in this western plateau. 

Turning to the east, we have still 
to deal with the Acadian Highland or 
the Canadian portion of the Appa¬ 
lachian Highland of the eastern United 
States. This includes Nova Scotia, 
New Brunswick and eastern- Quebec. 

The metallic production of this 
area has always bulked large in con¬ 
sidering the utilization of their natural 
resources. Nor would it be fair, 
just because the Wabana^^ iron de¬ 
posits happen to come under the juris¬ 
diction of the government of New¬ 
foundland, to omit mention of them. 
Undoubtedly these iron deposits at 
Wabana have been developed on such 
a vast scale as to entitle them to « 
recognition among the great iron de¬ 
posits of the world. 

A. Vast Storehouse and Its Riches 

Now, having all too briefly en¬ 
deavored to outline the geological 
characteristics of Canada, with special 
reference to mining, and remembering 
that so far we have made no mention 
of coal, which, after all is perhaps 
Canada’s greatest mineral resource, 
an effort will be made to summarize 
more particularly coal and other in¬ 
dividual products. 

[Coal] 

To gain any adequate idea of Cana¬ 
da’s vast reserves of coal reference must 
be made to the summary prepared by 
Dr. Dowling,^^ for presentation to the 
Twelfth International Geological Con¬ 
gress, held in Canada in 1913. Briefly, 
Canada’s reserves are there estimated 
to be in excess of 1,216,000,000,000 

Transactions of The' Canadian Institute of 
Mining and Metallurgy, Vol. XIV, 1911. 

Vol. LXII, The Coal Resources of the World, 
published by a Committee of the Twelfth 
International Geological Congress held in 
Canada, 1913. 


The Mineral Resources of Canada 


105 


of tons. This enormous total taxes 
one’s imagination and perhaps can 
be grasped better in a comparative 
way by saying that, roughly, it is 
nearly sixty per cent greater than the 
total estimated reserves of all Europe; 
nearly equal to those estimated for the 
whole of Asia and equal to one-sixth 
of the total estimated reserves of the 
entire world. 

[Oil and Natural Gas] 

Oil and natural gas have been pro¬ 
duced, in a comparatively small way, 
for many years in southwestern 
Ontario, but within the last few years 
a very vigorous campaign has been 
under way in the Canadian West, ex¬ 
tending from our southern border as 
far north as Norman on the Mackenzie 
River, a point about nine hundred 
miles northwest of Edmonton. Here 
and there encouraging results have 
been obtained and the larger oil cor¬ 
porations are showing no inclination 
to curtail their prospecting efforts. 
Those best fitted to pass judgment are 
hopeful, but disinclined to make any 
definite prediction. 

[Gold] 

Gold mining in Canada may be 
said to have started in British Colum¬ 
bia in 1859, followed by the boom 
conditions of the Klondike in 1896. 
The production from these districts, 
with that of Nova Scotia, bid fair to 
give Canada eminence in the industry, 
but the big years were soon passed 
and the output had continued to 
dwindle until the discovery of the 
Porcupine camp. Now with the On¬ 
tario gold camps before mentioned and 
the gold producers on the Pacific 
slope, the annual production is rapidly 
increasing. During 1921, Ontario pro¬ 
duced a little over seventy-six per cent 
of Canada’s total, showing an increase 
of 25.2 per cent over the production 


of the previous year.^^ This is par¬ 
ticularly interesting when contrasted 
with the fact that the world’s produc¬ 
tion is constantly dropping and shows 
a decrease of over twenty-eight per 
cent between the years 1915 and 1920. 

[iSi’foer] 

Silver production is fairly uniform. 
However, the outstanding producer 
has been the Cobalt camp, which 
reached the apex of its prosperity in 
1911, with a production for that year 
of over 31,000,000 ounces.^^ Gradually 
the output has declined and it remains 
to be seen whether or not the new 
discoveries at Keno Hill in the Yukon 
Territory, can compensate this loss. 

In 1921 the total production was 
9,210,698 ounces.^^ Of this over sev¬ 
enty per cent was produced as refined 
silver, nearly nine per cent was con¬ 
tained in blister copper and lead bul¬ 
lion and approximately twenty-one 
per cent was contained in gold bullion 
and recovered from ores exported. 

[Nickel] 

Nickel is a metal of outstanding 
importance to Canada. It was first 
discovered in the Sudbury District in 
the early eighties. Having taken up 
the mining claims as copper prospects, 
the owners, some years later, were 
surprised to find that they contained 
nickel which was difficult to, free from 
the copper-nickel matte. To make 
matters worse there was practically 
no market for nickel when it was 
recovered. But those interested were 
not easily discouraged. Nickel-steel 
armor plate was soon after adopted 
by the navies of the world. Other 
uses were found and Canada, during 

Annual Reports of the Ontario Department 
of Mines, Toronto. 

11 Ibid. 

13 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, under Min¬ 
eral Production of Canada, 


106 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the war, was producing about eighty- 
five per cent of the world’s demand. 

Many other countries have nickel 
ores, but so far as present knowledge 
goes and excepting New Caledonia, 
no foreign ores are high enough in 
grade to compete successfully against 
the Canadian deposits.^® 

[Copyer] 

Copper is fairly well distributed 
across Canada, but the bulk of the 
production comes from British Colum¬ 
bia and Ontario.The latter, in 
1921, produced about one-quarter, 
mostly as a by-product of the nickel 
ores. British Columbia is not only 
the largest producer, but continues 
to make excellent progress. Some 
very large and important discoveries 
have been opened up in northern 
Manitoba and their development only 
awaits an increase in the world’s 
demand. 

[Other Products] 

Zinc is mined mostly in British 
Columbia, although Quebec for some 
years produced at the rate of about one 
million pounds per year.^® The Ca¬ 
nadian production is increasing rapidly, 
and the 1921 production of approxi¬ 
mately 53,000,000 pounds showed an 
increase of over thirty-three per cent 
over the 1920 production. 

Lead production, as in the case of 
zinc, is largely from British Columbia, 
with very much smaller amounts from 
Ontario and Quebec.^® There has 
been considerable growth in the in¬ 
dustry, and comparing quantities the 
1921 production exceeded that of 1920 
by over eighty-six per cent. 

Cobalt is found in many parts of 
central Canada, but its commercial 
production is almost wholly confined 

Report of the Royal Ontario Nickel Com¬ 
mission 1917. 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa. 

18 Ibid, 18 Ibid. 


to the Cobalt silver camp, where it is 
recovered as a by-product from the 
silver ores.^® 

Precious metals of the platinum 
group are associated in small quantities 
with the Sudbury nickel ores and re¬ 
covered in the refining process. Every 
year some alluvial platinum is recov¬ 
ered in British Columbia. However, 
the actual production is very small and 
these are included in this summary 
merely to show that Canada does 
produce them in a commercial way. 

Before passing from the metallic 
minerals, we must yet deal with iron 
ore. 

[Iron] 

Iron ore is found in many parts of 
Canada and in nearly every province, 
but the amount sufficiently high grade 
to meet smelter requirements and 
to stand competition from the higher 
grade deposits in the United States 
has been extremely small. To our 
disappointment it must be admitted 
that Canada today is not producing 
any iron ore. There are large deposits 
of siderite and magnetite at present 
located, running from thirty to thirty- 
five per cent metallic iron, but these 
ores must be concentrated, or as it is 
commonly called “ beneficiated,” be¬ 
fore they can be accepted by modern 
blast furnace practice. 

The governments of British Colum¬ 
bia and Ontario are actively seeking 
how best the problem of utilizing our 
own iron ore resources can be solved. 
It is hoped that some plan of bene- 
ficiation may be found that will permit 
of the commercial exploitation of these 
enormous low grade iron deposits 
and it is thought by many who have 
studied the subject carefully that as the 
low grade deposits are developed and 
opened up, that high grade deposits 

8° Report of the Ontario Department of Mines, 
Toronto. 


The Mineral Resources of Canada 


107 


not now exposed will be found. Cer¬ 
tain it is that the finding of a process 
that will permit of the profitable 
utilization of our iron ore resources 
is the big outstanding problem in 
the mining industry of Canada today. 
This statement will be made clearer 
to the reader by adding that the esti¬ 
mated tonnage of these known low 
grade Canadian iron ore deposits is 
in excess of six hundred million tons. 

[Non-Metallic Minerals'^^] 

Coal and asbestos have been pre¬ 
viously referred to and the remaining 
list embraces almost all the common 
minerals. While in the aggregate the 
value of our annual production is 
large, the consumption of any one 
particular mineral is comparatively 
small. Important progress is being 
made in this phase of mining, but 
space available is not sufficient to 
permit detailed reference. 

So far statistical information has 
been kept well in the background, 
because it would be just as feasible 
to describe a great structure from a 
progress report on the foundation 
work alone, as to describe Canadian 
mineral resources from what has as yet 
been accomplished. Progress to date 
is a measure of the energy that has 


been put into the mining industry 
and in no sense can it be said to limit 
the extent or value of our resources. 

With a view then of indicating what 
has been accomplished, the annual 
value of Canada’s mineral production 
has been averaged over periods of 
five years each and an accelerated 
growth indicated in the diagram that 
follows. 

Again, to show the distribution of 
this production in terms of value, as 
between the different provinces, the 
statement on page 108 is submitted. 

Realization of Farming Possi¬ 
bilities BY Early Settlers 

In the early days of Canada the 
settlers with great difficulty eked out a 
scanty livelihood. Fishing, fur trading 
and hunting offered the greater oppor¬ 
tunities. But as families landed and 
homes were established, the land was 
cleared and there was an increasing 
desire on the part of all to till the land. 
The results obtained from their crude 
efforts were so far beyond their ex¬ 
pectations and it was so easy to become 
a landlord, as compared with conditions 
in the land of their birth, that farming 
made wonderful progress. As means 
of transportation was provided and 
markets opened up, the Canadian 


How Value of Canada’s Mineral Production Has Increased 
Average Value of Annual Production over Five-Year Periods 22 


1887-1891,inc 
1892-1896, 
1897-1901, 
1902-1906, 
1907-1911, 
1912-1916, 
‘1917-1921, 



Average 


$14,518,679 

19,913,965 

49,270,049 

66,684,163 

94,859,670 

144,771,377 

193,547,535 


21 Report of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. 

22 The Canada Year Book 1920, published by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa. 








108 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Value of Minerals Produced in Canada by Provinces 


In the Calendar Years 1918-1919-1920 



1918 

1919 

1920 

Value 

Per Cent 
OF Value 

Value 

Per Cent 
OF Value 

Value 

Per Cent 
OF Value 

Nova Scotia. 

$22,317,018 

10.56 

$23,445,215 

13.27 

$30,187,533 

13.86 

New Brunswick.... 

2,144,017 

1.01 

1,770,945 

1.00 

2,225,261 

1.02 

Quebec. 

19,605,347 

9.28 

21,267,948 

12.04 

27,722,502 

12.73 

Ontario. 

94,694,093 

44.82 

67,917,998 

38.44 

78,749,178 

36.16 

Manitoba. 

3,220,424 

1.53 

2,868,378 

1.62 

3,900,207 

1.79 

Saskatchewan. 

1,019,781 

0.48 

1,521,964 

0.86 

1,711,580 

0.79 

Alberta. 

23,109,987 

10.94 

21,097,582 

11.94 

33,721,898 

15.49 

British Columbia.. . 

42,835,509 

20.27 

34,865,427 

19.73 

38,044,915 

17.47 

Yukon Territory. . . 

2,355,631 

1.11 

1,940,934 

1.10 

1,512,006 

0.69 


$211,301,897 

100.00 

$176,686,390 

100.00 

$217,775,080 

100.00 


people, by common consent, described 
their country as the granary of the 
British Empire. 

Importance of Mining 

Appreciating, then, the wonderful 
fertility of our soil and the great area 
represented by even the fifteen per 
cent before mentioned, and with no 
desire to belittle or underrate the im¬ 
portance of agriculture, now or in the 
future, it must be apparent to the 
reader that in any well-rounded plan 
for the development of Greater Can¬ 
ada, mining must play a large and 
increasingly important part. 

The day is not far distant when 
there will be no inclination on the part 
of Canadians to describe our country 
as essentially agricultural in her pur¬ 
suits. 

To estimate the value of our mineral 
resources, it would be necessary to 
know, first, the tonnage and grade of 
all the ore bodies, and, secondly, the 
cost of production. The first factor 
cannot be determined and is beyond 


our control. However, the second 
factor, within measure, is subject to 
our control. 

An ore body may contain mineral 
to the value of many millions of dollars, 
but if the cost of production is not less 
than the market value of the metal 
or mineral recovered, it has no real 
or present value. However, if, by 
better methods of treatment, lower 
transportation costs, decreased taxa¬ 
tion or any of the similar influences 
affecting costs, that production charge 
can be decreased to a level where a 
profit is possible, this ore body becomes 
a real asset. The owner makes a 
small profit, but what is of far more 
importance, the country’s wealth is 
increased by a sum equal to the gross 
value of the production and associated 
industries profit proportionately. 

Our opportunities in this respect 
are large. Nature has dealt liberally 
with Canada in respect to water 
power. The climate is healthful and 
while in the northern parts the tern- . 
perature is extreme during the winter 


The Canada Year Book 1920, publishGcl by the Domiiiion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa. 


































The Mineral Resources of Canada 


109 


months, it is never so severe as to 
seriously hamper ordinary mining op¬ 
erations. Timber is available almost 
everywhere. 

We have a stable and just govern¬ 
ment. Title to mining property is 
secure. Law and order is rigidly 
maintained. In matters of legislation 
affecting the mining industry the 
views and opinions of those particularly 
interested are carefully considered. 


Coupled with these many favorable 
conditions, is the fact that the Ca¬ 
nadian miner, springing from pioneer 
stock, is a trustworthy, conservative, 
intelligent and industrious workman. 

Canadians are only beginning to 
recognize the importance of their 
mining industry. Foreign capital is 
more easily available for the develop¬ 
ment of our mineral resources and a 
very successful future is assured. 


Water Powers of Canada 

Prepared by Staff of Dominion Water Power Branch, Department of the Interior, Ottawa 


O NE of the most striking and 
romantic stories of modern in¬ 
dustrial achievement has been the 
story of Canadian water powers. The 
growth and extension of the water 
power industry in this country has 
been phenomenal not only from the 
standpoint of rapidity of development 
but also because of the diversity of 
the field which it serves. Niagara is 
harnessed, so are the turbulent streams 
of northern Ontario, the glacier creeks 
and torrents of the Rocky Mountains 
with heads of hundreds and thousands 
of feet, the sturdy streams of the 
Yukon, the picturesque rivers of the 
Maritime Provinces, the mighty water¬ 
ways of Quebec; and as yet their might 
and splendor has been almost un¬ 
touched and their wastage of energy 
unchecked. 

It is stated that Canada possesses a 
greater fresh water area than the rest 
of the world put together; in any case, 
it is well known that she has storage 
and, except in the southern part of the 
Prairie Provinces, power facilities in 
profusion from ocean to ocean and 
from the Great Lakes to the Arctic; 
even today after years of study and 
analysis by government and private 
engineers the estimate that can be 
offered as to the extent of these re¬ 
sources is not by any means complete. 
In those large areas where but vague 
information has been acquired of river 
profiles and watershed characteristics, 
there is an equal lack of knowledge of 
the other natural resources, radium, 
platinum, gold, silver, copper, tin, 
oil, pulpwood, electricity, they may 
all be there. It is a story yet to be 
told. 


Total Resources 

The latest available survey or anal¬ 
ysis of our hydraulic resources, care¬ 
fully and conservatively worked out 
from all known sources of information 
on a basis of 80 per cent installed 
efficiency, has placed them at 18,255,- 
000 h. p. for conditions of ordinary 
minimum river flow. It is further 
estimated on the same efficiency basis 
that some 32,076,000 h. p. could be 
depended on for six months of the year. 
It so happens in actual Canadian 
practice that the average turbine in¬ 
stallation in existing plants actually 
exceeds by 30 per cent the latter figure. 
Making a direct application of this 
proportion to the figures quoted it will 
thus be seen that the known water 
powers of the Dominion would permit 
of a turbine installation of 41,700,000 
h. p. At the same time it must be 
remembered that no consideration has 
been given to rapids or falls whose 
descents were not well established, nor 
to ordinary river gradients except at 
such points as definite studies have 
been made and the results made a 
matter of record, so that these figures, 
large as they may seem, are in reality 
the minimum water power possibilities 
of the Dominion. 

It is an important and opportune 
fact that a large amount of the avail¬ 
able total is situated in the “ acute fuel 
zone,” a territory stretching for about 
1,500 miles east and west and centering 
upon the Great Lakes, where coal is not 
conveniently or economically available. 

The distribution of these water 
powers by provinces is shown in a 
table at the end of the section. 


110 


Water Powers of Canada 


111 


Developed Water Powers 

Only a small beginning, 7 per cent of 
the estimated total, has been made by 
way of utilizing this tremendous asset 
as yet, but small as is the beginning, it 
yet represents a most astonishing 
growth in a country of many striking 
commercial attainments. In 1895 the 
first high tension transmission of 
electricity in the British Empire was 
accomplished between a small power 
of 1,200 h. p. on the Batiscan River 
and Three Rivers, Quebec, at 11,000 
volts. Dating from 1900 when the 
total installed horse power was some 
150,000 in small scattered plants and 
mills, its progress has been swift and 
unfluctuating even in times of ab¬ 
normal trade depressions till we have 
at present 2,969,659 operating horse 
power and over 21,000 miles of trans¬ 
mission and distribution systems scat¬ 
tered from Nova Scotia to the Yukon, 
in units varying from a few horse 
power to the 60,000-h. p. turbines in 
use on the Niagara. 

Of the existing developments, 2,164,- 
870 h. p. is operated by central stations, 
i.e., plants selling power, of which 
663,379 h. p. is municipally or publicly 
owned; 484,228 h. p. is owned by the 
pulp and paper companies, and 320,- 
561 h. p. is installed in other industries. 
The total installation for the Dominion 
averages 338 h. p. per thousand popula¬ 
tion, a figure which places Canada 
second only to Norway in the per 
capita utilization of water power 
among the countries of the world. 
Should this rate of growth be main¬ 
tained, and the indications are that it 
will be accelerated rather than re¬ 
tarded, the total installation will have 
reached 3,360,000 h. p. by 1925, 
4,110,000 h. p. by 1930, 4,860,000 h. p. 
by 1935 and 5,600,000 h. p. by 1940. 
Despite the existing financial depres¬ 
sion the year just passed has been one 


of marked progress in hydraulic enter¬ 
prise, some 300,000 h. p. having been 
installed during the year with addi¬ 
tional construction under way. 

Hydro power is in itself one of the 
greatest single industries in the Do¬ 
minion with a capital investment of 
620,000,000 dollars (including over 
$90,000,000 in transmitting and dis¬ 
tributing equipment) which, if the 
present rate of progress is maintained, 
will have become over a billion dollars 
by 1940. Water power securities are 
very highly favored in the Canadian 
financial markets because of excellent 
earning power and unfluctuating price, 
but the economic importance of hydro¬ 
electric enterprises is not so much due 
to high capital return and security as 
to their prime importance to other 
great industries some of which are 
absolutely dependent on large blocks 
of cheap power for their survival and 
grow^th. 

Dependent Industries 

The preeminent success of many 
typical Canadian industries and the 
future of many projects now under 
way and under consideration are com¬ 
pletely bound up by cheap power 
facilities. Amongst others might be 
mentioned the pulp and paper industry, 
the mining industry, the electro-chemi¬ 
cal and electro-metallurgical industry, 
the milling industry. In fact, the suc¬ 
cess of Canadian industry as a whole 
has been in great part due to cheaply 
available hydro powder in unlimited 
quantities, while these specially men¬ 
tioned industries have attained pe¬ 
culiar eminence in world supply of 
their products for the precise reason 
that water power could be obtained 
cheaply, conveniently, continuously 
and in large quantities. 

Take, for example, the manufacture 
of pulp and paper. Statistics show 
that in 1890 Canada exported $120 


112 


The Annals of the American Academy 


worth of pulp and paper; in 1920 the 
export value of these products was 
$214,421,546. The importance of cheap 
power here may be judged from the 
fact that it takes practically 100 h. p. 
to make one ton of paper per day. It 
is, therefore, not surprising that motive 
power used in this industry is prac¬ 
tically restricted to hydraulic energy, 
and Canada’s continued supremacy 
in this field rests on adequate and 
abundant water powers strategically 
situated among extensive forest re¬ 
serves. A total of 644,805 hydraulic 
horse power is used by the pulp and 
paper companies of which 484,228 h. p. 
is developed by the industry itself, the 
remainder being acquired by purchase. 

Similarly, though in less striking 
fashion, has water power played its 
part in mining. Canadian gold, silver 
and nickel properties have reached 
enormous annual outputs. In many 
cases large scale operations, which 
alone made the difference between 
profit and loss, would have been im¬ 
possible without ample hydraulic en¬ 
ergy at relatively low cost. Some of 
the new refining practices embody 
electrolysis of the mineral salts for 
metallic recovery, a process requiring 
large and continuous blocks of power. 
Many mines are so placed geographi¬ 
cally that rail haul on coal or untreated 
ore would be prohibitive. Some are 
even removed from the railways al¬ 
together, but with hydraulic installa¬ 
tions at or close to the mines they can 
yet be worked and the product so con¬ 
centrated as to permit being hauled to 
the nearest railway at a profit. 

Electro-chemical and electro-metal¬ 
lurgical industries are becoming estab¬ 
lished in this country because of the 
power advantages to be obtained, and 
it is confidently expected by those 
interested in them that a relatively few 
. years will see a Canadian industry of 
this type second to none. 


Relation to Agriculture 
AND Transportation 

It has been said that electricity and 
the motor car can do more than any¬ 
thing else to keep young men and 
young women on the farm. If these 
two agents can definitely check this 
away-from-the-farm movement within 
the next 25 years a serious social prob¬ 
lem will have been solved. The On¬ 
tario Government through its Hydro- 
Electric Power Commission is giving 
every encouragement for the use of 
electricity in country districts. It 
even arranges demonstrations and 
lends all possible assistance to farmers 
who are interested. Its significant 
example will doubtless be followed if 
and when it can be economically 
justified by the Power Commissions of 
Manitoba and the Maritime Provinces 
so that electric facilities will become a 
regular feature of rural life. 

The benefits of water power on 
transportation have in the past been 
indirect. They have permitted the 
development of industry at points 
which otherwise could never have con¬ 
tributed appreciable revenue to our 
railway systems. Today a more defi¬ 
nite relationship is being proposed, 
namely, the electrification of our rail¬ 
ways, and while the present time does 
not seem exactly propitious for radical 
changes of policy involving large 
capital expenditures, yet there are 
many indications that the time is not 
far distant when water power will re¬ 
place coal in part at least on Canadian 
railways. Investigations of the engi¬ 
neering and economic possibilities of 
railway electrification are now in 
progress. 

Coal Equivalents and Exports 

In this connection it may be inter¬ 
esting to point out the amount of coal 
that is being and will be saved by the 


Water Powers of Canada 


113 


use of water power in Canadian 
industry. The present development 
represents an annual equivalent of 
26,700,000 tons of coal, which, valued 
at $10 per ton, represents $267,000,000. 
In the year 1940 these annual figures 
at the present rate of turbine installa¬ 
tion and with the foregoing assumption 
will have become 42,000,000 tons and 
$420,000,000. These figures are strik¬ 
ing evidence of the outstanding im¬ 
portance and necessity of the present 
enlightened policy governing the de¬ 
velopment of our water power re¬ 
sources. 

Canada exports considerable quan¬ 
tities of hydro-electric power and has 
done so for a number of years. At the 
present time there are eleven exporting 
companies in various parts of the 
Dominion including the provinces of 
New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and 
British Columbia, selling power to the 
United States. For the fiscal years 
ending March 31, 1919, 1920 and 1921, 
the amounts of power exported were 
175,013 h. p.-years, 143,003 h. p.-years 
and 156,017 h. p.-years, respectively, 
and this export offsets, to a certain ex¬ 
tent, the import of coal from the 
United States. 

Costs 

Construction costs and revenue are 
two aspects of power development that 
are of exceptional interest to financiers, 
engineers and, in fact, the general 
public. As may be imagined, it is 
altogether impossible to lay down 
definite figures with respect to either, 
as local conditions and other influenc¬ 
ing circumstances vary so greatly. 

An analysis was made a few years 
ago of 70 representative power plants 
throughout the Dominion with an 
aggregate turbine installation of 745- 
797 h. p., and it was found that omit¬ 
ting all real estate, transmission and 
distribution equipment, the total con¬ 

9 


struction cost was $50,740,458, or 
$69.11 per horse power installed. This 
figure is the average capital cost of 
construction at the power site and is 
applicable to moderately large plants 
constructed under market and labor 
conditions considerably easier than 
they are today. Increased costs are 
general in almost all industry, so that 
present costs of development, while 
less strikingly so, are, nevertheless, 
relatively as favorable now as formerly. 

The selling price of power in bulk 
varies greatly. One large producing 
company sells power adjacent to its 
plant for as little as $11.50 per h. p. 
per year, but this is abnormally low 
and a more representative figure for 
cheap power would be $15 per h. p. per 
year. 

Numerous large industrial compa¬ 
nies have their own hydro plants and 
for many such the generating costs are 
said to be extremely reasonable, power 
having been produced under favorable 
conditions for from 9 to 15 dollars per 
h. p. per year by plants constructed at 
pre-war costs. 

Administration 

For the provinces of Manitoba, 
Saskatchewan and Alberta and the 
Northwest Territories including the 
Yukon, water powers are under the 
administrative control of the Federal 
Government. Elsewhere the Provin¬ 
cial Governments have jurisdiction. 
Originally water power sites could be 
acquired by purchase, but the present 
prevailing method of acquiring im¬ 
portant sites is by lease. In the prov¬ 
inces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
Ontario and Manitoba, Hydro-Electric 
Power Commissions have been created 
by the respective governments to 
operate power plants and transmission 
and distribution systems as publicly 
owned utilities; in Quebee the govern¬ 
ment has not entered the development 


114 


The Annals of the American Academy 


and transmission field but has confined 
its efforts to the development of large 
water storage works which have proved 
a great boon to power developing 
interests as well as profitable to the 
province. 

Investigatory work in the various 
watersheds throughout the country is 
carried on by the Dominion Water 
Power Branch of the Department of 
the Interior working in close coopera- 


CONCLUSION 

In conclusion it may be said that 
Canada has very great water power 
resources and has already made a 
splendid showing in their development. 
Unexcelled electrical facilities have 
been provided for the general public 
as well as ample motive power for 
industry, much of which owes its ex¬ 
istence and security to water power. 


Table of Available and Developed Water Power in Canada 


f 

Province 

Available 24-h 
Per Cent 

At Ordinary 
Min. Flow 
h. p. 

R. Power at 80 
Efficiency 

Dependable for 

6 Months 

h. p. 

Installed 

Turbine 

h. p. 

British Columbia. 

1,931,142 

5,103,460 

312,515 

Alberta. 

475,281 

1,137,505 

33,187 

Saskatchewan. 

513,481 

1,087,756 


Manitoba. 

3,270,491 

5,769,444 

104,147 

Ontario. 

4,950,300 

6,808,190 

1,349,100 

Quebec. 

6,915,244 

11,640,052 

1,067,414 

New Brunswick. 

50,406 

120,807 

41,280 

Nova Scotia.. 

20,751 

128,264 

46,948 

Prince Edward Island. 

3,000 

5,270 

1,869 

Yukon and Northwest Territories. 

125,220 

275,250 

13,199 


18,255,316 

32,075,998 

2,969,659 


tion with provincial governments and 
commissions, and very complete and 
authoritative information on all mat¬ 
ters affecting water power is on file for 
the information of those interested. 
These data, from which the table 
above is conipiled, are being added to 
constantly, and may be considered the 
most authentic and comprehensive 
records available. 


Further, the resources as yet untouched 
will fully provide for the country’s re¬ 
quirements for many years to come, and 
finally, thanks to an enlightened policy 
of investigation and control by the va¬ 
rious governments concerned, there is a 
guarantee that these resources will be 
developed efficiently and in the public 
interest as economic conditions from 
time to time require. 



























Industrial Research in Canada 

By Frank D. Adams, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S. 

Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, McGill University, Montreal 


I NDUSTRIAL research, which ac¬ 
complished such great things in the 
development of the German industries, 
made but comparatively, slow progress 
in most of the English-speaking coun¬ 
tries until the outbreak of the Great 
War. This catastrophe demonstrated 
within its first weeks, to the most hide¬ 
bound industrialists of the old school, 
that science had given the German 
industries a command of resources 
and methods which was conspicuous 
by its absence among them. In Great 
Britain immediately following the dec¬ 
laration of war the services of every 
available research man were enlisted, 
great sums of money were provided, 
and the belated attempt was made to 
gain by research during the early 
years of the war the knowledge of many 
things of vital importance with which 
the Germans had become perfectly 
familiar in preparing for war in the 
time of peace. To this end early in 
1915 the Imperial Government ap¬ 
pointed an Honorary Advisory Council 
for Scientific and Industrial Research 
to organize and develop the work of 
scientific and industrial research as 
applied both to the problems of war 
and peace. This Council was to 
report directly to a committee of the 
Privy Council, and a sum of £2,000,000 
was placed at its disposal for the 
prosecution of its work. 

Establishment of Industrial Re¬ 
search Organizations 

The Overseas Dominions were in¬ 
vited to establish similar organizations 
for the purpose of bringing the re¬ 
sources of modern science to bear on 
the development of their industries 


and gradually to establish coordination 
of effort and cooperation in research 
throughout the Empire. Acting on 
this suggestion the Government of 
Canada constituted late in 1916 the 
Canadian Honorary Advisory Coun¬ 
cil for Scientific and Industrial Re¬ 
search, and to this body, consisting 
of twelve gentlemen prominent in 
the world of science or industry in 
Canada, were assigned the following 
duties: 

(a) To ascertain and tabulate the 

various research agencies in 
Canada. 

(b) To note and schedule researches 

and investigations. 

(c) To coordinate all research agencies, 

so as to prevent overlapping. 

(d) To tabulate the technical and 

scientific problems that confront 
Canadian industries. 

(e) To study the unused natural re¬ 

sources of Canada and the by¬ 
products of all basic industries. 

(f) To increase the number of trained 

research men. 

(g) To stimulate the public mind in 

regard to the importance and 
< utility of scientific research. 

The members of the Research Coun¬ 
cil, as its name indicates, serve in an 
honorary capacity, but they have 
working under them a salaried techni¬ 
cal executive oflficer with an adequate 
staff of assistants and suitable office 
accommodation located at Ottawa. 

Canada far Behind 

The Research Council, in order to 
ascertain the equipment and man¬ 
power available in Canada for research 


116 


The Annals of the American Academy 


and the solution of the technical prob¬ 
lems confronting Canadian industries, 
at once made what might be termed 
a research inventory of the Dominion. 
This established the fact that Canada 
was far behind in the necessary prepa¬ 
rations for the scientific development 
of her industries, and it was obvious 
that the great majority of Canadians 
needed to be educated to the advan¬ 
tages of research. 

To meet this situation the Research 
Council proceeded to develop its work 
along three lines: 

(a) 'Recognizing that there was but a 
very limited number of highly trained men 
available for the work of industrial research 
in the Dominion, the Research Council 
established a number of fellowships, 
studentships and bursaries having an 
annual value of $1,200, $1,000, and $750 
respectively. These can be held only by 
university graduates. A man (or woman) 
who has shown a marked aptitude in re¬ 
search may be appointed to a bursary 
tenable for one year, and if he proves to 
possess a distinct capacity for the prosecu¬ 
tion of research maj’^ in subsequent years 
be promoted to a studentship and then 
a fellowship. The students holding these 
awards follow their courses of advanced 
study and obtain their training in research 
at one or other of the larger universities 
of Canada. Up to the present time 196 
of these awards have been made to 123 
persons. Those who have foflowed courses 
of study under these bursaries, student¬ 
ships or fellowships are now almost with¬ 
out exception holding positions in industrial 
companies in Canada or in Canadian 
universities, and devoting their time wholly 
or in part to the work of research. On 
these grants the Research Council expends 
annually a sum not exceeding $40,000, 
or one third of the annual grant of $120,- 
000 given to it by the Dominion Parlia¬ 
ment. 

(b) The Research Council has inaugu¬ 
rated a number of very important re¬ 
searches, such as that on the utilization 
of Canadian Peat now being carried out at 
the Alfred Bog near Ottawa under the 


Peat Board, and that on the Briquetting 
of Low Grade Lignite of southeastern 
Saskatchewan at Bienfait near Estevan, 
now being conducted by the Lignite 
Utilization Board. It has also made grants 
for the carrying out of some 78 researches 
into questions of special importance to 
Canadian industry representing an ex¬ 
penditure of about $160,000. 

(c) In order to develop an interest in 
research everywhere throughout the Do¬ 
minion and at the same time to mobilize 
for the purpose of research all the available 
forces in Canada, it has associated with 
itself twelve associate or advisory com¬ 
mittees composed of the leaders in various 
branches of science in the Dominion com¬ 
prising 127 persons in all. 

Necessity for a National Research 
Institute 

The Research Council, however, 
recognizes that in order to further 
develop its work the establishment 
of a national research institute is 
necessary. If such an institute were 
erected and endowed, the Council 
would be in a position to organize the 
various industries of the Dominion— 
many of whom as mentioned below 
now carry on a certain amount of 
research w^ork, and all of whom could 
profit by it—in a wide scheme of 
industrial research, the Government 
supplying well-equipped laboratories 
and shops under a director and one 
or two assistants of extended and suc¬ 
cessful experience in conducting re¬ 
search, while the several industries 
would provide the salaries of the 
skilled workers and the additional 
outlay required for the solution of 
the special problems which they would 
bring to the Institute. 

This plan it is believed would most 
fully meet the special conditions which 
obtain in Canada at the present time. 
A bill for the establishment of such 
an institute was passed by the House 
of Commons on May 3, 1921, but 


Industrial Research in Canada 


117 


subsequently failed to receive the 
approval of the Senate. It will proba¬ 
bly be introduced again during the 
session of 1923. 

What amounts in the aggregate to a 
considerable volume of research is now 
being carried on in the larger universi¬ 
ties of the Dominion, in certain of the 
departments of the Federal Govern¬ 
ment and in a few of the depart¬ 
ments of certain provincial govern¬ 
ments, as well as by certain of the 
larger and more important indus¬ 
tries of the Dominion. Accurate 
statistical information with reference 
to the number of workers and the 
total amount of expenditure on their 
research is not as yet available. Cer¬ 
tain general statements may, however, 
be made. 

Work of Universities 

Information furnished by the nine 
leading Canadian universities shows 
that in them about 350 persons are 
more or less continuously engaged in 
scientific research, but it is probably 
safe to say that the total expenditure 
for research in these seats of learning 
does not in the aggregate exceed $250,- 
000 per annum, if, indeed, it reaches 
that amount. 

As a general rule there are no grants 
to the various university departments 
specially designated to research, and 
the proportion of the general grant to a 
department which it devotes to pur¬ 
poses of research cannot be accurately 
determined. Little or no scientific 
research is carried on in the smaller 
universities. This research work car¬ 
ried out in the Canadian universities 
is often of the highest value and im¬ 
portance, as, for instance, the work 
carried out by Rutherford, Soddy and 
Calendar, in the Department of Physics 
at McGill University, or the remarkable 
work recently carried out by Banting 
and Best on Insulin in the Department 


of Physiology in the University of 
Toronto. It is, however, for the most 
part not industrial research, but re¬ 
search into those great principles and 
laws of nature which underlie in¬ 
dustrial research. In this type of 
research the university finds its most 
appropriate field and makes its greatest 
contribution to the sum of human 
knowledge. 

Government Investigations 

Turning to the great government 
departments, especially those of the 
Dominion Government, it is found that 
in a number of these important in¬ 
vestigations are being carried on. 
A large part of this work, however, 
is necessarily of purely routine charac¬ 
ter. It is difiicult and indeed im¬ 
possible in many cases to draw the 
line between the routine examination 
of specimens and the study of the 
numberless little problems which pre¬ 
sent themselves for study in a great 
government department day by day 
and which form part of the work of 
the department, and the higher lines 
of investigation which are properly 
classed as scientific or industrial re¬ 
search. A considerable amount of 
the work carried on by the govern¬ 
ment departments may, however, prop¬ 
erly be classed as belonging to the latter 
category. 

Among these the Department of 
Agriculture may be especially men¬ 
tioned, with its central experimental 
farm, and various sub-departments, 
laboratories and offices at Ottawa, 
with auxiliary farms and laboratories 
in many widely separated parts of the 
Dominion. Its work in the develop¬ 
ment of new varities of wheat, and 
other cereals especially adapted to 
the climatic conditions of Canada, 
is well known. Excellent work is also 
done in connection with the extermina¬ 
tion of insect pests, as well as in the 


118 


The Annals of the American Academy 


domain of field husbandry, botany, 
chemistry, etc. 

The Forest Products Laboratory 
of the Department of the Interior 
located at Montreal and which works 
in association with McGill University 
has for several years been carrying on 
important researches on timber phys¬ 
ics, wood preservations and the manu¬ 
facture of pulp and paper. It is well 
equipped and has done much valuable 
work. 

The Federal Department of Mines, 
through its two branches, the Geo¬ 
logical Survey of Canada and the 
Mines Branch, has for years carried 
out a great work which lies in the 
border region of routine investigation 
and industrial research, and has con¬ 
tributed largely to the development 
of the mining industry of Canada. 

The Biological Board of Canada, 
working in cooperation with the Fed¬ 
eral Department of Marine and Fisher¬ 
ies, maintains a laboratory at Ottawa 
and two biological stations, one on the 
Atlantic Coast at St. Andrews, N. B., 
and the other on the Pacific Coast 
at Nanaimo, B. C. In addition to a 
small staff of permanent officials there 
are 34 research workers each summer 
at these biological stations, necessitat¬ 
ing an annual expenditure of about 
$45,000. 

Certain departments of the pro¬ 
vincial governments carry on a cer¬ 
tain amount of investigation. Among 
these may be mentioned the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture of the province 
of Nova Scotia, in the Agricultural 
College at Truro, the important work 
of the Ontario Bureau of Mines and 
the Scientific and Industrial Research 
Council of Alberta, which is connected 
with the University of Alberta and 
concentrates its efforts on the develop¬ 
ment of the great natural resources 
of this western province, with an 
annual expenditure of $38,000. 


Investigations of Industrial 
Plants 

Finally, there is a certain amount of 
work which can be properly designated 
as industrial research, carried on in 
connection with much more routine 
work in laboratories maintained by 
some of the large industries in various 
parts of Canada. Thus the Cana¬ 
dian Electric Products Co. Limited, 
maintains a fully equipped labora¬ 
tory at Shawinigan, Que., engaged 
on investigations looking to the 
improvement of existing processes 
and the development of new ones, 
chiefly in connection with the man¬ 
ufacture of carbide of calcium, acety¬ 
lene, acetaldehyde, acetic acid and 
the various products developed from 
these bodies, entailing an annual ex¬ 
penditure in the neighborhood of 
$150,000. 

The Hydro-Electric Power Com¬ 
mission of Ontario, taking its power 
from Niagara Falls, has a staff of 
fifteen engineers and assistants de¬ 
voting a portion of their time to 
investigations connected with the oper¬ 
ations of the company. 

In the manufacture of pulp and 
paper, which is one of the largest in¬ 
dustries of the Dominion, research is 
becoming of increasing importance. 
The larger mills have for several years 
maintained departments of research, 
and recently many of the smaller mills 
are employing competent investigators. 
In a general way it can be said that 
this is directed chiefly to process con¬ 
trol and the elimination of waste, 
while the Government Forest Products 
Laboratory and the universities are 
looked to for the more fundamental 
research on cellulose and the constitu¬ 
tion of raw materials which enter into 
paper making. 

The companies engaged in the min¬ 
ing and smelting of nickel ores in the 


Industrial Research in Canada 


119 


Sudbury District also maintain lab¬ 
oratories and experimental plants, 
in which extensive investigations 
are carried out in connection with 
the production and manufacture 
of the metal in all its stages, while 
the great steel companies also main¬ 
tain laboratories where the work 
carried on is, however, chiefly for 


the control of their manufacturing 
processes. 

In conclusion it may be said first, 
that Canadian industry is becoming 
increasingly alive to the importance 
of true industrial research, and, sec¬ 
ondly, that increased provision for 
such research will undoubtedly be 
made during the next few years. 


Primary and Secondary Education in Canada 

By S. A. CuDMORE, B.A. (Tor.), M.A. (Oxon.), F.S.S. 

Chief of Education Statistics and Editor Canada Year Book, 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa 


R eference is made, in a famous 
speech of Lord Macaulay, to the 
high standard and democratic charac¬ 
ter of Scottish education, to which he 
attributes the great successes which 
Scotchmen have attained in the pro¬ 
fessions, in industry and in business, 
throughout the civilized world. 

Canada has been called the “Scot¬ 
land of America”; the reference was 
originally to its northerly position, but 
the analogy goes far deeper than that. 
Many districts in the Maritime Prov¬ 
inces {e.g., Pictou County, Nova 
Scotia) and in Ontario (Glengarry, 
Lanark, Middlesex and Oxford Coun¬ 
ties) were originally settled by Scottish 
pioneers, while Lord Selkirk’s Red 
River Settlement of 1811, composed 
entirely of Scotchmen, was the pioneer 
settlement in the far-stretching Prai¬ 
rie Provinces. While only one-seventh 
of the Canadian population of 1911 was 
of Scottish origin, the influence of 
the Scots on education was from the 
commencement out of all proportion 
to their numbers. The democratic par¬ 
ish schools of Scotland, described by 
Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations, 
attended by all and establishing a 
“career open to the talents,” became 
the model for the educational systems 
of this new and democratic country, 
where the conditions of life were such 
as to defeat the attempts of early gov¬ 
ernors and ecclesiastics to set up an 
aristocratic system of education and 
an established church. 

In short, throughout Canada as 
throughout Scotland, respect for edu¬ 
cation survives in an unusual degree; 
parents and children make even today 


the greatest sacrifices in order that the 
latter may attend high school and 
university; indeed, the majority of the 
students in Canadian universities are 
at least partially self-supporting. 

The native intelligence and respect 
for education which exist among the 
Canadian people may be exemplified 
to American readers from the investiga¬ 
tions of their Immigration Commission, 
published in Vol. 29 of the encyclo¬ 
paedic reports of that body. In the 
general survey of over 2,000,000 school 
children of 30 large American cities, 
among whom were included 32,369 
children of immigrants from Canada 
(other than French) the Immigration 
Commission found that in the four 
primary grades Canadians other than 
French had the lowest percentage of 
any immigrant race, 45.3 per cent, 
while 41.5 per cent were in the gram¬ 
mar grades and 10.3 per cent, the 
highest proportion for any immigrant 
race, in the high schools, the balance 
being presumably in the kindergarten. 
The percentages for children of native- 
born white fathers, given on page 23 of 
the same volume, were 52.1, 34.5 and 
9.1 respectively. 

Under Provincial 
Authority 

Throughout the Dominion of Canada 
public education is a matter of provin¬ 
cial, as in the United States it is a 
matter of state concern. Before Con¬ 
federation the maritime colonies were 
separated from Ontario by French- 
speaking Quebec, and in each of these 
an educational system specially 
adapted to the local conditions had 


Primary and Secondary Education in Canada 


121 


come into existence. When Confedera¬ 
tion was under consideration, the 
protection of existing vested rights was 
the predominant consideration. As 
a result. Section 93 of the British 
North America Act, which embodies 
the Canadian Constitution in so far as 
that Constitution is a written one, 
provides that in and for each province 
the legislature may exclusively make 
laws in respect of education, except 
that “nothing in any such law shall 
prejudicially affect any right or privi¬ 
lege with respect to denominational 
schools which any class of persons 
have by law in the province at the 
union.” 

Inasmuch as the administration of 
public education is one of the chief 
functions of provincial governments, 
there is in each of the provinces, except 
Quebec, a department of education 
administered either by a member of 
the Provincial Executive Council or by 
the Executive Council as a whole. In 
practice, however, the routine ad¬ 
ministration is in the hands of the per¬ 
manent officials of the department of 
education, who are members of the 
permanent civil service. In Quebec 
the Superintendent of Public Instruc¬ 
tion, appointed by the Government, is 
ex-officio President of the Council of 
Public Instruction; the link between 
the Department of Public Instruction 
and the Government is the Provincial 
Secretary; there are also two Deputy- 
Heads, called the French and English 
secretaries of the department. 

Since the departments of education 
are permanent authorities, controlled 
as to the details of administration by 
permanent officials who are much 
better informed on educational matters 
than the person who through the 
vicissitudes of politics becomes for a 
time Minister of Education, educa¬ 
tional policy is relatively permanent; 
further, the control of the Government 


over education throughout the prov¬ 
ince is relatively stronger than in the 
United States. A capable Deputy- 
Minister or Superintendent of Educa¬ 
tion impresses his personality and his 
views upon the whole system of his 
province, especially as in practice he 
controls the payment of government 
grants, which constitute an important 
part of the revenues applied to edu¬ 
cational purposes. (In 1921, out of a 
total expenditure on public general 
education in Canada amounting to 
$102,561,425, $11,898,084 came from 
the provincial governments.) 

The department of education in each 
province naturally has its headquarters 
at the capital of the province. Its 
local representatives are the school 
inspectors, who in all provinces except 
Ontario are appointed and paid by the 
Government; in Ontario high and 
separate school inspectors are ap¬ 
pointed and paid by the Government, 
while public school inspectors, except 
in the unorganized districts, are ap¬ 
pointed by the county or city munici¬ 
pality from among the persons recog¬ 
nized by the department of education 
as qualified for such appointment, and 
after appointment receive half their 
salary from the municipality and half 
from the province. 

Some Criticisms 

Through its inspectors, the depart¬ 
ment of education maintains its con¬ 
trol over the whole body of teachers, 
throughout their daily work. It also 
appoints and pays the teachers of the 
normal schools, and decides upon the 
academic standing necessary to qualify 
for admission to these, thus controlling 
the entrance to the teaching profession. 
It also determines the subjects to be 
taught and the details of curricula 
throughout the province, and au¬ 
thorizes the particular text-books to 
be used in each subject throughout the 


122 


The Annals of the American Academy 


schools. This naturally has the tend¬ 
ency to reduce public education 
throughout the province to one uniform 
type, and has been unfavorably criti¬ 
cized on that account. So far as the 
primary schools are concerned, how¬ 
ever, it is replied that the young and 
inexperienced teachers too often em¬ 
ployed are in need of expert control, 
and.that the results from the present 
system are on the whole better than 
could be obtained in any other way. 
For the same reason, it is claimed that 
the average teacher or even the local 
educational authority is not as well 
qualified as the department of educa¬ 
tion to make the best choice of text¬ 
books. 

Perhaps a more serious criticism of 
the system is that each province favors 
its own and that there are considerable 
obstacles in the way of the teacher who 
has qualified in his own province 
securing a position in any other 
province. This situation arises partly 
from the fact that under ordinary 
circumstances the number of persons 
annually turned out by the normal 
schools is a considerable percentage of 
the total number of teaching positions 
in the province. As this is the case, 
the authorities in each province natu¬ 
rally give the preference to home- 
trained teachers. 

The centralized control of education 
has also been in the past responsible 
for the number of examinations im¬ 
posed as tests, especially in the second¬ 
ary schools. The writer, when taking 
his secondary school work in an On¬ 
tario high school, regularly wrote each 
year an examination set by the 
department of education, on the results 
of which depended his non-professional 
standing with the department, and in a 
general way, promotion in the school. 
The passing of departmental examina¬ 
tions is, however, no longer essential 
to promotion in school. Indeed, it 


may be said that along many lines 
today there is a tendency toward 
greater flexibility, especially in the 
high and technical schools, where in¬ 
struction must to a greater extent be 
adapted to the needs of the individual, 
and where the local authorities are 
presumably more conversant with the 
needs of each locality. 

Education in Quebec 

In Quebec there are two distinct 
systems of education, in both of which 
the teaching of religion takes a promi¬ 
nent position—the Protestant and the 
Roman Catholic systems. In the 
former, which is under the control of 
the Secretary to the Department of 
Public Instruction and the Protestant 
Committee of the Council of Public 
Instruction, the curriculum and the 
general system of education is similar 
to that in the other provinces, except 
that public and high school grades are 
taught in the same school, and that the 
highest grade is Grade XI, from which 
students are matriculated to McGill 
University and Bishop’s College, the 
two Protestant English-speaking uni¬ 
versities of the province. 

In the Roman Catholic schools, 
which are mainly French-speaking as 
the Protestant schools are English- 
speaking, the administration is in the 
hands of the French Secretary to the 
Department and the Catholic Com¬ 
mittee of the Council of Public In¬ 
struction. General elementary train¬ 
ing is given by means of a curriculum, 
extending over eight “years,” some of 
which require more than a year to 
complete, the work of the eighth 
“year” corresponding in a general way 
to the work of Grade IX or possibly 
Grade X as that work is generally 
understood. The student who com¬ 
pletes this eight “year” course in the 
Catholic academy is, however, at the 
“jumping-off” point. While, accord- 


Primary and Secondary Education in Canada 


123 


ing to the general standards of educa¬ 
tion on this continent, he has done 
some secondary work, he cannot enter 
a secondary school nor matriculate at 
the French Canadian universities, 
Laval and the University of Montreal. 
These derive their regular students 
from the boys, largely drawn from the 
professional class, who enter the 21 
Roman Catholic classical colleges scat¬ 
tered throughout the province (the 
only Roman Catholic schools regarded 
as “secondary schools”) at an early age 
and not only cover there the work of 
the primary and secondary grades, but 
proceed through the Arts course of the 
university, the degrees being con¬ 
ferred by the University of Montreal 
and by Laval University, Quebec. 
The high literary culture of French 
Canadian statesmen and professional 
men generally, is largely due to the 
influence of these colleges. Teaching 
convents in Montreal, Quebec, and 
other centers furnish the same literary 
culture in the education of the French* 
Canadian women of the province. 

Recent Developments in Education 

In recent years in Canada there has 
been a tendency to increase the ages of 
compulsory attendance and to enforce 
the law. This tendency has been most 
marked in Ontario, which contains 
one-third of the population of the 
country. Here in 1919 an Act was 
passed providing (1) that children 8 
to 14 must attend full time and that 
children from 5 to 8 once enrolled must 
attend full time to the end of the school 
term for which they are enrolled; (2) 
that adolescents from 14 to 16 who 
have not attained a university matricu¬ 
lation standing must attend full time; 
those exempted owing to circumstances 
requiring them to go to work must 
attend part time during the ordinary 
working day for 400 hours a year in 
municipalities providing part time 


courses, which all municipalities of 
5,000 population and upwards must do 
from September, 1922, smaller munici¬ 
palities having an option in the matter. 
Further, those who have not attended 
full time up to 16 will be required after 
September, 1923, to attend 320 hours 
a year of part time courses up to age 
18. In other words, an Ontario ado¬ 
lescent has the alternative of full time 
attendance to 16 or full time atten¬ 
dance to 14 plus part time attendance 
to 18. 

As a result of the keeping of children 
in school to a more advanced age, in¬ 
creasing attention has naturally been 
devoted to technical education of 
various kinds, especially as required 
by those students who are not adapted 
to higher intellectual work. The num¬ 
ber taking technical training of some 
kind or other is rapidly increasing. 

Vocational and Technical Educa¬ 
tion IN Canada 

As late as the seventies and eighties 
of the la^t century little vocational 
education was given in the schools;^ 
private business colleges were estab¬ 
lished in the cities about this time. 

Among the first vocational courses 
to be introduced into schools were com¬ 
mercial courses, which were introduced 
into the high school curricula of On- 

^ An exception to the above statement may be 
made in the case of Quebec, where even in the 
17th centmy vocational instruction formed a 
prominent feature of school training. Bishop 
Laval had a. school at Cap Tourmente where 
academic and vocational training were given. 
In fact Quebec has always emphasized the vo¬ 
cational side of school work and a school of 
domestic science at Roberval is said to be the 
oldest of the kind in the world. In Manitoba, 
also, vocational training was a feature in the 
earliest schools. As early as 1818 training was 
offered in agriculture and in 1829 a school was 
opened for girls, where weaving was taught in 
addition to the other branches, while by 1833 
vocational training was given to both the Roman 
Catholic and Protestant elements of the popula¬ 
tion. 


124 


The Annals of the American Academy 


tario and Manitoba in 1899, of British 
Columbia in 1905 and in Saskatchewan 
and Alberta about the same time. 
The classical colleges of Quebec were 
also among the first to provide a com¬ 
mercial course for those of their pupils 
who did not desire to enter the profes¬ 
sions, and a school for commercial stud¬ 
ies was founded in 1907 at Montreal. 

Agriculture was first taught in 
special colleges, the Ontario Agricul¬ 
tural College at Guelph, a government 
institution being founded in 1874, the 
Nova Scotia Agricultural College in 
1888, the Manitoba Agricultural Col¬ 
lege in 1903, Macdonald College at 
Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Que., 1907. 
In Quebec the agricultural college at 
Ste. Anne de la Pocatiere, the first in 
Canada and the second on the conti¬ 
nent, was founded in 1859, and the Oka 
Agricultural Institute was established 
in 1890. The Ontario Veterinary Col¬ 
lege, founded in Toronto as a private 
venture in 1862, was one of the first on 
the continent, and for many years 
drew its students very largely from the 
United States. In 1908 it was taken 
over by the Ontario Government, and 
has recently been transferred to 
Guelph. 

Training in handicrafts was intro¬ 
duced into the school in the form of 
manual training for boys and domestic 
science for girls. The former was 
originally intended merely as a training 
in the use of tools, partly as a recrea¬ 
tion and partly as a means whereby 
the boy could get some idea of his 
capacity as a mechanic. A form of 
this manual training was introduced 
into Ontario schools in 1883, and into 
the schools of Nova Scotia in 1891; in 
the latter province it was made com¬ 
pulsory for teachers in training in 
1893. In the Prairie Provinces man¬ 
ual training was introduced in the first 
decade of the present century. 

The second decade of the century 


has, however, seen the most rapid de¬ 
velopment in technical and vocational 
education. Following upon the pub¬ 
lication of Dr. Seath's report on 
Education for Industrial Purposes and 
the report of the Royal Commission of 
1910 on Industrial Training and Tech¬ 
nical Education^ published in 1913, 
technical education has made rapid 
strides, partly, due to the stimulus 
given to manufactures by the war. 
By 1915, manual training courses in 
Ontario had branched out into in¬ 
dustrial, technical and arts school and 
in that year a large technical school 
was opened in Toronto. The Kelvin 
and St. Johns Technical Schools in 
Winnipeg date from 1911, and the 
great technical school in Montreal 
from the same year. 

Aid Given by Dominion Government 

While educational administration is 
a matter for the provinces, the Do¬ 
minion Government, realizing the na- 
•tional importance of vocational educa¬ 
tion, has supplemented the provincial 
funds available for these purposes. 
In 1913 was passed the A^icultural 
Instruction Act, distributing $10,000,- 
000 in ten years among the provinces 
for the advancement of agricultural 
education. In 1919 a similar sum was 
voted for technical education to be 
divided within ten years among the 
provinces approximately in proportion 
to population, but so as not to exceed 
the sums expended by the provinces on 
technical education. These grants have 
been most effective in turning the at¬ 
tention of the provincial authorities 
toward vocational education, which is 
making great strides, especially in the 
eastern manufacturing provinces. 

Desire for Education Shown in 
Figures 

Out of a total population of 8,788,483 
in 1921, Canada had, so far as statistics 


Pruviary and Secondary Education in Canada 


125 


are available, 2,030,450 persons in at¬ 
tendance at educational institutions, 
or 23.1 per cent of the population. Of 
these 1,784,780, or 20.3 per cent of the 
total population, were enrolled in 
ordinary day schools under public 
control, the average daily attendance 
numbering 1,241,264. Those attend¬ 
ing technical schools, including agri¬ 
cultural and commercial schools, and 
short technical courses in universities, 
numbered 83,379, and teachers in 
training in normal schools, 6,113: those 


in private business colleges were 29,309, 
and those in other private schools 
under college grade, 68,101. Those in 
attendance at the regular courses of 
universities numbered 22,917. 

The teachers in schools under public 
control numbered in 1921 55,951, 
9,179 males and 46,441 females. The 
total expenditure on schools under 
public control w^as $102,561,425, of 
which governments contributed $11,- 
898,084, and local taxation most of the 
balance. 


Higher Education 

By G. S. Brett, M.A. 

Professor of Philosophy and late Vice-Chairman, Board of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto 


T he development of education in 
Canada follows a natural course. 
While it is obvious that many problems 
are met and many peculiar situations 
occur, it is none the less true that the 
general character of the progress is 
universal and normal. Though every¬ 
thing may still be explained by saying 
that Canada is a young country, the 
explanation becomes less adequate 
every decade. The meaning of that 
phrase seems to be, primarily, that we 
must expect all interest and all educa¬ 
tion to be directed toward material 
prosperity; that man must eat first and 
think afterwards; and that this order 
of importance will naturally dominate 
the whole scale of values by which the 
inhabitants of Canada will live. This 
argument neglects the all-important 
factor of origins. If the country is 
new in the sense of undeveloped, the 
civilization brought into it was not 
equally new. If the roads and the 
houses were lacking, traditions were 
from the first singularly mature and, 
whether British or French, they were 
consciously upheld as a treasured 
heritage. The actual course of devel¬ 
opment, which to some extent contra¬ 
dicts common opinion, is really normal 
in character. Elementary education, 
once organized, is regulated by needs 
so fundamental that its content is the 
same in all times and places. Dis¬ 
tinctions begin where choice and 
specialization begin, and here we find 
that the original tendency was to em¬ 
phasize that classical culture which 
dominated the life of the countries in 
which Canadian leaders were bom ^d 
bred. 


Specialized Training 

On a 'priori grounds it has been as¬ 
sumed that Canada built up, on a 
basis of scientific, practical or material 
education, the structure of a higher 
system of classical, linguistic or philo¬ 
sophical training. But in fact the 
main tendency has been in the reverse 
direction. In the earlier stages educa¬ 
tional work was divided by the natural 
and simple plan of providing elemen¬ 
tary teaching for the general popula¬ 
tion and higher education for the pro¬ 
fessional classes. The spirit and needs 
of these professions tended to uphold 
the primacy of the classics (Greek and 
Latin), of literature in general, history 
and philosophy. In Roman Catholic 
institutions the value of this type of 
education is still fully appreciated, but 
as a whole the education of the country 
is moving along new lines. The de¬ 
cisive factor is the increased demand 
for more elaborate training in the 
positive activities of life. 

The response to this demand is seen 
in the rapid growth of special depart¬ 
ments for the study of agriculture, 
forestry, engineering and medicine. 
These automatically create larger 
classes in the sciences which they 
as, e.g.y biology, botany, mathe¬ 
matics and physics, physiology and 
anatomy. The field of education is 
becoming more complex every day, 
and the most important problem 
which the administrator has to solve 
arises from the relation between train¬ 
ing and education. Some of the 
teachers in our universities can still 
remember when modern languages 
were regarded as a barbarous innqva^ 

m 


Higher Education 


127 


tion, while the sciences were tolerated 
as a harmless way of contemplating 
the marvels of creation. 

A Problem 

The predominance of industry in 
modern life has had the effect of filling 
in the ancient gap between professions 
and labor. Labor itself is professional¬ 
ized, and no line can be drawn de¬ 
cisively between the one and the other. 
This creates the great problem of the 
student who wants to go beyond the 
limit of the schools but does not want 
to reach the highest limit of a uni¬ 
versity course. In Canada, it must be 
remembered, the influence of British 


traditions produced an organization of 
education in which the school and the 
university were the only recognized 
units. In other words, the “ college ” is 
not in the Canadian system an inter¬ 
mediate unit. Conversely, a univer¬ 
sity doing no graduate work is not an 
anomaly in Canada, mainly because 
British universities until recent times 
provided no systematic education for 
any degree above that of the bachelor in 
arts or science.^ At the present time 

^ The University of London has long been 
accustomed to grade its work by stages from 
matriculation to B.A., M.A., and doctorate; but 
all the work could be done extra-murally and 
this was itself directly opposed to the older belief 


Institution 

Original 

Foundation 

Present 

Charter 

Staff 

Students 

University of St. Dunstan’s, Charlotte¬ 
town, P. E. I. 

1855 

• 

• • • • 

14 

241 

University of King’s College, Windsor, 
N. S. 

1789 

1802 

23 

151 

Dalhousie University, Halifax, N. S. 

1818 

1863 

93 

688 

Acadia University, Wolfville, N. S. 

1838 

1840 

24 

333 

University of St. Francis Xavier, Anti- 
gonish, N. S. 

1855 

1909 

15 

270 

University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, 
N. B. 

1800 

1860 

14 

138 

Mount Allison University, Sackville, N. S. 

1858 

1886-1913 

21 

259 

University of St. Joseph’s College, St. 
Joseph, N. B. 

• 1864 

1898 

36 

400 

McGill University, Montreal, Que. 

1821 

1852 

344 

3,045 

University of Bishop’s College, Lennox- 
ville, Que. 

1843 

1853 

9 

62 

Laval University, Quebec, Que. 

1852 

1852 

816 

9,872 

University of Montreal, Montreal, Que.... 

1878 

1920 

392 

3,511 

University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. 

1827 

1906 

559 

5,060 

Victoria University, Toronto, Ont. 

1836 

1836 

31 

598 

University of Trinity College, Toronto, 
Ont. 

1851 

1852 

25 

147 

Western University, London, Ont. 

1878 

1908 

75 

363 

Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont. 

1841 

1841 

169 

2,351 

University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont. 

1849 

1866 

171 

2,743 

McMaster University, Toronto, Ont. 

1857 

1887 

22 

293 

University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man. 

1877 

1877 

198 

1,390 

University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 
Sask. 

1907 

1907 

80 

1,136 

University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta 

1906 

1910 

84 

1,106 

University of British Columbia, Van¬ 
couver, B. C. 

1907 

1908 

117 

1,159 



































128 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the most acute problem for higher 
education in Canada probably lies in 
this quarter. It is necessary to extend 
the work upwards, both in quantity 
and quality: this virtually means add¬ 
ing to some of the existing institutions 
a staff adequate to deal with the most 
advanced type of literary and scientific 
research. To this point we can return 
later when some other facts have been 
considered. 

The provision made for higher 
education in Canada can be estimated 
from the tabulated statement, on p. 
127, the data being taken from the 
Government Reports as printed in the 
Year Book for 1922. 

Acts of Federation 

The general significance of these 
figures can be regarded as obvious. 
The major institutions are McGill 
University, University df Montreal, 
University of Toronto, Queen’s Uni¬ 
versity, Dalhousie and Manitoba. 
The large number accredited to Laval 
University includes 7,268 students in 
“courses leading to Matriculation and 
other Preparatory Courses”: also the 
total (9,872) is to be understood as in¬ 
cluding 9,151 “registered in affiliated 
colleges.” Similarly the University 
of Ottawa includes in its total 2,484 in 
preparatory courses, and out of the 
total 2,743 there are 1,926 in affiliated 
colleges. In the case of Toronto a 
system of federation unites the four 
colleges, University, Trinity, Victoria 
and St. Michael’s, while students from 
other colleges (e.gr., Wycliffe and Knox) 
are registered for courses leading to 
degrees in arts in the university. The 
University of Toronto is an outstand¬ 
ing example of the process by which 
colleges arise independently and then 

that education primarily means a personal 
relationship. 


unite for specific purposes. Trinity, 
Victoria and St. Michael’s are inde¬ 
pendent institutions belonging to the 
Anglican, Methodist, and Roman 
Catholic communities respectively. 
University College is the undenom¬ 
inational college and is dependent 
on provincial revenues. The sciences 
which demand an equipment that 
cannot be satisfactorily supplied with¬ 
out centralization are provided for by 
the university and students in all the 
colleges enjoy these facilities {e.g.^ in 
physics, chemistry, biology, geology, 
economics, modern history, and others) 
under the terms of their respective 
acts of federation. 

The details of these acts of federation 
need not be further described. This 
may be called the method of local 
federation. It has very obvious ad¬ 
vantages in two respects, (a) in 
efficiency and economy of management, 
especially in subjects which require 
expensive laboratory equipment; (b) 
in uniting and standardizing the edu¬ 
cational work in general. Considera¬ 
tion of the table on p. 127 will show 
that in Eastern Canada there has de¬ 
veloped a situation which may call for 
analogous methods. Difficulties both 
geographical and sentimental will make 
.any process of amalgamation very 
complex, but a scheme to unite some or 
all of the existing institutions in the 
Maritime Provinces is now actually 
being considered. This may easily 
prove the beginning of other schemes, 
for there is more than one direction in 
which both decentralization and cen¬ 
tralization might prove desirable. The 
larger universities tend to be over¬ 
loaded with work which might prof¬ 
itably be done in local centers, either 
by increasing the scope of the best 
existing educational institutions or by 
creating new institutions to serve as 
preparatory colleges. 



Higher Education 


129 


Other Institutions 

In addition to the major institutions 
named in the table on p. 127 there are 
sixty-seven (67) institutions ranked in 
the Dominion statistical report as pro¬ 
fessional and affiliated colleges {Year 
Booky 1922 pp. 164-5). These have a 
total teaching staff of 1,550, and the 
number of students is 20,486. Theology, 
classics, agriculture, art, law, pharmacy, 
education and general culture are some 
of the subjects for which these colleges 
provide training according to their 
specific character and aims. The 
record of the last decade shows a steady 
increase in numbers and a correspond¬ 
ing increase in expenditure, the figures 
in both cases indicating that the de¬ 
mand for education is growing annually 
and is well distributed over the whole 
country. The professional and affili¬ 
ated colleges assist the work of educa- 
' tion in two ways. In some cases they 
provide for distinctive spheres of train¬ 
ing, such as law, agriculture, and 
dentistry, which involve special con¬ 
ditions; in others, they carry on the 
preparatory work required by higher 
institutions which may regulate their 
work with the direct intention of mak¬ 
ing it continuous with the institution 
to which the college is affiliated. 

General and Special Education 
Possible 

The general significance of the data 
may now be summed up. By means of 
institutions, in some cases privately 
endowed and in others publicly sup¬ 
ported, both general and special edu¬ 
cation is provided throughout Canada 
in schools, colleges, and from the more 
elementary grades to the university 
entrance standard. The colleges are 
institutions which provide advanced 
training for specific purposes without 
granting degrees: special certificates 
or diplomas may be given to students 


by these institutions, or the university 
to which the institution is affiliated 
may act as examining body and give 
the degrees. Some colleges combine 
both features, having a charter as a 
university: for example, a theological 
Qollege giving its own theological de¬ 
grees and also training students in arts 
for degrees given by another university 
to which it is affiliated. The highest 
level of education is the university 
which primarily gives education up to 
the standard required for the degree 
of bachelor in arts or science. 

International Movement 

Reference was made above to 
schemes of federation and coordination 
which have produced distinctive re¬ 
sults in certain cases. These local and 
independent enterprises suggest the 
possibility of future developments 
which might be undertaken in the 
interests of provincial or Dominion 
organization. Before 1914 students 
desiring a doctor’s degree frequently 
regarded Germany as the only de¬ 
sirable resort: the less ambitious elected 
to fulfil the requirements in a uni¬ 
versity of the United States. The 
epoch-making period 1914-1918 di¬ 
rected attention to this emigration of 
talent and a concerted effort was made 
to coordinate work done in France, 
Great Britain and the North American 
continent so that students might more 
easily complete their courses in one or 
other of these countries. This inter¬ 
national movement has been of con¬ 
siderable value. The researches to 
which advanced students devote them¬ 
selves cannot in reality be arbitrarily 
localized. But it is not possible for all 
students to carry out such elaborate 
schemes, and it is not desirable that 
untrained students should dissipate 
their energies in a wealth of material 
which they have not learned to con¬ 
trol. 


10 


180 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Need for Post-Graduate Work 

Apart, therefore, from the ultimate 
question of material, there is large 
scope for post-graduate work in Can¬ 
ada. The table of institutions given 
on p. 127 is significant in the matter of 
dates. The western institutions are of 
recent date: the middle and eastern 
parts of Canada have had more time 
to become mature and undoubtedly 
have the advantage in all cases where 
accumulated material and a specialized 
staff are needed. On the other hand, 
the universities of the West are more 
isolated and independent: they require 
to be more complete individually, 
while in the East proximity to larger 
universities in Canada or the States, 
reduces the necessity of duplicating 
staff and equipment. The logical con¬ 
clusion would be that some institutions 
should be encouraged to develop the 
type of work which a student under¬ 
takes after getting his bachelor’s 
degree. The plan adopted should pay 
regard to the conditions of different 
provinces and aim to provide a center 
which would be recognized as having 
distinctive qualifications for research 
work, to which accordingly the other 
educational institutions would send 
advanced students. In addition to 
this, the provinces should be regarded 
as units in a general scheme for organi¬ 
zation in the Dominion as a whole, and 
the institutions which can'show ade¬ 
quate resources in particular depart¬ 
ments of work should then act as 
similar centers to which students from 
all provinces might be sent. 

Recent statements (December, 1922) 
show that at present complete organi¬ 
zation for graduate studies and re¬ 
search exists at McGill University, 
Montreal, the University of Toronto 
and Queen’s University, Kingston. 


This means that students can continue 
in these universities until the doctorate 
degree is conferred, but the statement 
does not imply that a staff is appointed 
exclusively for work of this grade. 
For Roman Catholic students the 
University of Montreal provides op¬ 
portunities for obtaining the degrees 
of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Letters, 
or Doctor of Philosophy. This Uni¬ 
versity acts as a center of organization 
for twelve affiliated colleges in which 
the undergraduate work is done. The 
graduate work undertaken is mainly 
in arts: graduate work in law, medicine 
and other professional branches is 
usually taken either at Paris or in the 
United States. Practically all uni¬ 
versities from east to west extend their 
teaching for one or more years beyond 
the requirements for B.A. The num¬ 
ber registered for the higher degrees 
averages 10 to 15, with the exception 
of certain institutions: e.g.., McGill and 
Toronto report more than 100, Alberta 
more than 80, Manitoba 42. The 
larger numbers in the western uni¬ 
versities show a gratifying activity in 
this direction. These universities also 
report a relatively large number of 
students proceeding to the United 
States for the completion of their 
studies {e.g., from Alberta 15, from 
Saskatchewan 15, from Manitoba 6), 
but these figures are approximate and 
comparison with other parts of Canada 
is made difficult by the different con¬ 
ditions: in the East, for example, 
twenty students from Dalhousie Uni¬ 
versity alone are reported as continuing 
their work in the United States. Very 
few cases of students coming from the 
United States to Canada are reported 
and these would probably be explained 
by special circumstances other than 
educational facilities. 


The Canadian National Railways 

By D. A. MacGibbon, M.A., Ph.D. 

Professor of Political Economy, University of Alberta 


T he application in Canada on a 
large scale of the principle of gov¬ 
ernment ownership of railways is the 
result of a condition rather than the 
outcome of a theory. While there was 
a certain current of public opinion in 
favor of nationalizing the means of 
transportation, of itself this current 
had not sufficient power to commit the 
Canadian Government to such a 
course. In the actual event it was to 
avoid a threatened collapse in national 
credit that the acquisition of 20,000 
miles of railways was forced upon the 
people of the Dominion. That fact, 
plus the further fact that the Dominion 
of Canada stood as guarantor for a 
large amount of bonds issued by the 
roads in financial difficulties, were the 
controlling consideration in taking over 
the lines. 

Government Ownership 

The train of occurrences leading up 
to this stroke of policy is well known. 
The outstanding feature was the lavish 
encouragement of railway construction 
by government grants, loans and bond 
guarantees. As a natural result there 
was overbuilding. By 1914 it was 
evident to all that the future had been 
over-discounted and that an exceed¬ 
ingly serious railway crisis was at hand 
unless the body that was largely 
responsible for this condition stepped 
in and assumed the burden. With no 
great enthusiasm for the task this is 
what the Canadian Government has 
done. 

The principal parts of the system so 
acquired are the Grand Trunk Rail¬ 
way, 3,948 miles; the Canadian North¬ 
ern Railway, 9,259 miles; the Grand 


Trunk Pacific, 2,840 miles;the National 
Transcontinental, 2,007 miles; and the 
Intercolonial Railway, 1,593 miles. 
In addition there are the Prince Ed¬ 
ward Island system, 279 miles, and the 
unfinished Hudson’s Bay project of 
334 miles.^ The present Canadian 
railway problem is how to bring these 
lines into a coherent, unified self-sus¬ 
taining system. The circumstances 
under which they were built, the 
financial problems which threw them 
upon the Government, and their physi¬ 
cal situation and relationship to each 
other, make this indeed a very great 
task. Further, the form of manage¬ 
ment devised, though possibly the best 
that could be achieved, adds an addi¬ 
tional complicating factor to the prob¬ 
lem. 

The Royal Commission, appointed 
by the Dominion Government in 1916, 
recommended that a new public au¬ 
thority be created by incorporation to 
take over these railways and operate 
them for the people of Canada. The 
main reasons for this recommendation 
were to minimize political interference 
and to avoid complications arising out 
of considerable American mileage. The 
failure of an appeal of the Grand 
Trunk shareholders to the Privy Coun¬ 
cil made it possible to complete recently 
the formal organization of the new 
system which since 1918 has been 
known under the general term “Cana¬ 
dian National Railways.” 

The distinctive feature of this cor¬ 
poration is a board of directors which 
owes its appointment to the Dominion 
Government rather than to a body of 

^ Additional mileage constructed since make 
these figures slightly inaccurate in certain cases. 

131 


132 


The Annals of the American Academy 


shareholders. In the selection of 
members territorial considerations and 
the claims of labor to representation 
have both been given recognition. At 
the same time there is a political tinge 
to the appointments. This does not 
apply to the chairman of the board, 
Sir Henry Thornton, who comes to the 
position with a fine record gained in 
the American and British railway 
service. He has been promised a free 
hand in the development and execution 
of his policy. It has been stated that 
‘‘the Government has elected to ad¬ 
minister the National Railways in sub¬ 
stantially the same way as though they 
were privately owned.” The aim set 
forth by the new chairman is “that the 
Canadian National Railways should be 
put upon a self-supporting basis and 
the burden on the purse of the tax¬ 
payers stopped as quickly as possible.” ^ 

Difficulties 

In view of these declarations and 
promises we may premise that there 
are two questions to be considered: 
(1) If the entrepreneur point of view is 
successfully maintained what promise 
of success does the present situation 
hold forth .5^ (2) What forces and 

obstacles stand in the way of “ad¬ 
ministering the National Railways in 
substantially the same way as though 
they are privately owned.^” 

Reserving the second question for 
later discussion, let us consider the 
situation of the Canadian National 
Railways as though it were not a gov¬ 
ernment-owned system. In the first 
place, the financial history of at least 
two-thirds of the constituent lines show 
that when constructed they held forth 
such little promise of financial success 
that they were unable to attract private 
capital into the investment except and 
in so far as it was bolstered up by 

^ Addressing the Montreal Board of Trade, 
December 5, 1922. 


Government guarantees. Further, as 
operating ventures, they were failures, 
in some instances ghastly failures. 
We need not suddenly expect a change. 
In 1921, on 17,338 miles, the gross 
earnings were $126,691,455, operating 
expenses $142,784,357, operating def¬ 
icit $16,092,901. It is announced that 
operating revenue will cover operating 
expenses in 1922. The annual fixed 
charges of the Canadian Northern and 
Grand Trunk Pacific was $40,700,000. 
The total deficit^ of all the national 
lines was $56,600,000.^ The total invest¬ 
ment in the national lines is estimated 
by Sir Joseph Flavelle at $1,652,000,- 
000. A true accounting including in¬ 
terest on the loans and advances made 
by the Government, it is estimated 
would give annual fixed charges in 
round figures of $60,000,000. Sir 
Henry Thornton estimates that the 
National Railways must earn $40,000,- 
000 net annually to stop further ad¬ 
vances from the Government. This 
calculation would leave out of con¬ 
sideration interest on the cost of the 
National Transcontinental and the 
Intercolonial, these items being merged 
in the general public debt of Canada. 
Even with this relief, the national lines 
must earn $40,000,000 annually to meet 
guaranteed interest charges. 

Can the Government Establish a 

Self-supporting Basis and How? 

It is a principle of railway reorgani¬ 
zations that fixed charges should be 
scaled down until expected income will 
be ample to meet fixed charges. Viewed 
as a reorganization we may consider 
that Canada has written off a sum 
equivalent to the cost of the Inter¬ 
colonial, and the National Transcon- 

* Statement by Hon. W. C. Kennedy, Minister 
of Railways in Parliament, April 11, 1922. 

* The Grand Trunk was technically still a 
private line. In 1922, there was a net operating 
revenue of $5,000,000, and a net deficit of $4,- 
500,000. 


The Canadian National Railways 


133 


tinental. As the Dominion is guarantor 
of the bonds it is impossible to relieve 
the country of any further burden of 
fixed charges. There remains, there¬ 
fore, the very grave doubt as to 
whether the national lines can show an 
improvement sufficiently great to take 
care of this interest on guaranteed 
securities. The ability to do so rests 
upon the possibility of increasing 
traffic and of reducing costs by com¬ 
pletely welding together the lines into 
a single physical entity. 

Increased traffic depends upon (1) 
increased production; (2) ability to 
divert traffic from the Canadian Pa¬ 
cific Railway. While a certain in¬ 
crease in production is to be expected 
as the country shakes off the post-war 
depression, fundamentally no great 
increase can be hoped for until a tide 
of immigration sets in towards Canada. 
“How soon the Canadian National 
Railways will become self-supporting 
turns largely on what is done in the 
matter of immigration.’’ ^ This con¬ 
clusion certainly does not hold out any 
promise in the immediate future, 
whatever it may mean ten years hence. 

The possibility of the Canadian 
National lines diverting any large 
volume of traffic from the Canadian 
Pacific Railway is remote. There has 
already been some improvement in the 
relative position of the two systems 
and as the Government enterprise de¬ 
velops its routes and improves its 
facilities, it will probably make a better 
showing. However, apart from keener 
competition, the total effect will not be 
very large unless the Canadian Pacific 
drops from its present standard of 
efficiency. 

More effective results will probably 
be obtained in savings due to the re¬ 
organization of traffic and service. A 
vast reorganization will have to be 
carried through. This will involve the 
® Sir Henry Thornton. 


determination of the best lines and 
routes for through traffic, the physical 
adjustment and coordination of other 
lines as feeders, the reduction to an in¬ 
ferior status of duplications and of 
lines that offer no promise of traffic. 
This should lead to improvements in 
its operating schedules, reductions in 
staff and better train hauls. 

This process seems to be in progress 
at the present time although it has not 
as yet gone very far. The mileage 
operated out of Winnipeg affords an 
example. Here the valuable Canadian 
Northern branch line system is being 
coordinated with the fine main line of 
the Grand Trunk Pacific. When re¬ 
organization is completed there should 
be considerable reduction in operating 
costs. 

Elimination of Duplications 

The more difficult problem concerns 
duplications. Thus, at many points 
lines are parallel or so related to each 
other that the development of one 
route must be at the expense of the 
other. Obviously, certain portions of 
the present system must be discarded 
and other portions reduced to the 
status of being a branch line or at least 
local line serving local traffic. For 
instance, between Edmonton and Yel- 
lowhead Pass, there is a duplication of 
lines where one is all that is required. 
Beyond the Pass the old Canadian 
Northern goes to Vancouver and the 
Grand Trunk Pacific to Prince Rupert. 
“The Port of Prince Rupert is suited 
for a large ocean traffic which is non¬ 
existent.” ® Both lines cannot be kept 
up to a high standard if the existing 
volume of traffic be considered. 

The Hudson’s Bay route is incom¬ 
plete. The economic possibilities of 
this ill-starred project have never been 

® Minority Report, Royal Commission to 
Enquire into Railways and Transportation, 1917. 
P. xcvi. 


134 


The Annals of the Aaierican Academy 


competently investigated and reported 
upon. At present expenditure upon 
it is a speculative gamble of the wildest 
kind. If the chairman of the national 
lines holds to an economic administra¬ 
tion of the system he can hardly fail to 
jettison this project or relegate it to 
the distant future. 

Again, between Port Arthur and 
Eastern Canada, there are both the 
National Transcontinental and the 
Canadian Northern lines, although 
there is not sufficient traffic to utilize 
adequately and economically more 
than one route. Between Cochrane 
and the city of Quebec the best that 
can be hoped for is that the National 
Transcontinental should be used in the 
most capable manner to encourage 
settlement and to promote develop¬ 
ment. This means, however, that at 
present the idea of making this a great 
through route must be abandoned. 
As a colonization branch of the system 
it always will be available to relieve 
the pressure when a peak load de¬ 
velops on the alternative route. 

Certain Portions Must Be Scrapped 

In brief, the new chairman is j)ro- 
vided with 22,000 miles of line out of 
which to build up a working system. 
If he handles it purely as a business 
proposition, he will discard a portion 
absolutely and relegate about 2,500 
miles of what is now main line to 
colonization standards of equipment, 
maintenance and service. With a 
system lopped of its worst excrescences, 
he will then be in a position to concen¬ 
trate on the balance and there is no 
doubt that careful handling will show 
economies. The national system is 
well supplied with good through routes. 
It has an admirable system of feeders 
both on the prairie and in Ontario. It 
will certainly be in a position to offer 
effective competition to the Canadian 
Pacific Railway. 


The burden of charges is too great, 
however, to expect that the drain on 
the purse of the taxpayer will be 
stopped quickly. To expect that to 
be accomplished would be to ask more 
of the system than it could hope to 
achieve if its present status were that 
of a private company. The fact that 
Canada was guarantor of the bonds of 
the defunct companies made it im¬ 
possible to scale down charges with the 
same rigor that would necessarily have 
been employed in a sound ordinary 
railway reorganization. This is a fact 
to be kept in mind in judging the per¬ 
formance of the new system as the 
fruits of its reorganization appear. 

There remains to consider the forces 
that stand in the way of administering 
the National Railways as though they 
were privately owned. The dangers 
are political interference, the pull of 
sectional interest, and the public pres¬ 
sure for low rates. Sectional ambi¬ 
tions and public clamor for low rates 
have a way of getting into the political 
field so that ultimately it all comes 
down to a question of the degree that 
politics will be allowed to interfere 
with the working of the road. 

The board that has been appointed 
to support the chairman, as far as can 
be judged, is not a strong skilled board 
composed of men of recognized out¬ 
standing ability with some knowledge 
of the field of transportation. This 
may have its advantages in that it will 
tend to allow the chairman a freer 
hand. Per contra it must be observed 
that it throws the burden upon his 
shoulders. Moreover, it is a bad omen 
that the leader of the opposition in the 
federal house already on the political 
hustings has animadverted upon the 
chairman. It is evident that the board 
will do its work in the full glare of 
party politics. However, there is such 
a general wish among the taxpayers of 
the country to see the system managed 


The Canadian National Railways 


135 


well, that it is not likely that attempted 
political filibustering will be successful 
unless manifest inefiiciency develops. 
Only time will show if the new board 
will permit political manipulations by 
the party in power. History is not 
encouraging. 

A Serious Obstacle 

A more serious obstacle to a business 
administration of the system lies in the 
force of sectional interests. There are 
several problems of major importance 
where decisions unwelcome to sectional 
ambitions will arouse a storm of pro¬ 
test with strong political reactions. 
There is quite a body of public opinion 
in the western provinces favorable to 
the completion of the Hudson’s Bay 
route, although as already pointed out 
this venture is in the nature of a gam¬ 
ble. Nevertheless, if this project is 
laid aside it will certainly be construed 
on the prairies as evidence that the 
board appointed by the present Govern¬ 
ment is callous and unsympathetic to 
western interests and aspirations. 

The city of Quebec desires that the 
old National Transcontinental line be 
developed and become the main route 
for transcontinental traffic. This 
would expand the commerce of this 
port which has been eclipsed by the 
port of Montreal. Such a policy 
would probably not yield economic 
returns to the railway for many years, 
and in so far as it was successful it 
would be injuring a more efficient 
route. 

The Intercolonial Railway has al¬ 
ready suffered from political manipula¬ 
tion. Already the attempt to integrate 
it into the national system and bring 


it under strict business management 
has provoked sectional bi-partisan 
protests. If the policy is pursued of 
putting it on a parity with the re¬ 
mainder of the system there will un¬ 
doubtedly be intense dissatisfaction 
in the Maritime Provinces. 

In addition to problems of this 
nature with their political reflexes 
which beset the board, it will face a 
continual agitation for new stations, 
new lines, etc., backed up by political 
pressure. These demands are pressed 
far more keenly and arouse far more 
antagonism in the case of a "govern¬ 
ment board than of a private corpora¬ 
tion. 

The demand for lower rates always 
faces a railway executive and in many 
instances it is difficult for the adminis¬ 
tration of a road to show that reduc¬ 
tions are not economically justified. 
It is doubtful, however, if this demand 
will be as dangerous an element in the 
situation as others already mentioned 
since the influence of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway will count and besides 
the Board of Railway Commissioners 
is the arbiter of rates. The latter 
should perform an increasingly valua¬ 
ble function in standing between the 
public and the railways. 

In general, one may conclude that 
if the Canadian National Railways are 
administered purely as a business 
proposition there is a long and arduous 
struggle in prospect before they suc¬ 
ceed in meeting the very heavy annual 
charges arising out of bond guarantees. 
If, in addition, political interference 
and sectional interests are allowed to 
hamper the operations of the line, the 
task is well-nigh hopeless. 


Canadian Banking 

By Sir Edmund Walker, C.V.O., LL.D., D.C.L. 

President of The Canadian Bank of Commerce 


I N common with other social de¬ 
velopments, modern banking is 
mainly the result of heredity and en¬ 
vironment, and not of arbitrary legis¬ 
lation or the general admission in any 
wide degree of settled principles in the 
practice of banking. The student 
endeavoring to understand the science 
of banking, or seeking to discover some 
body of principles underlying the 
practice of banking throughout the 
world, is confused bv the radical differ- 
ences between the conditions sur¬ 
rounding each of these systems. We 
can, however, distinguish two classes 
of banking: first, that which has been 
influenced by a compromise between 
the necessities of the government, 
arising from war or extravagance, and 
the commercial requirements of the 
nation; and secondly, that happier 
condition where the lawmaker and the 
banker have been mainly concerned to 
give the people the best instrument in 
aid of commerce that they could de¬ 
vise. Scotland and Canada seem to 
be instances of this latter class. But 
in Canada, as elsewhere, the attempt 
to systematize has been influenced by 
public opinion based on past history 
which has demanded consideration. 
In the history of banking, Canada is 
not, as might be supposed, one of the 
new countries of the world. 

Early Days 

In the early days of banking in 
Canada a lesson was learned which it 
is well to recall to those who today 
desire to mix land banking with com¬ 
mercial banking. When the Bank of 
Upper Canada failed it was said to have 
owned land in every county in Upper 


Canada. The condition of the prov¬ 
ince at this time made this only too 
probable, because there was little to 
show for both public and private debts 
except slightly improved land and the 
roads dividing it, and a few towns and 
villages. Further, because of the dan¬ 
ger in every new land settlement in 
North America of locking up assets in 
land, a clear division between the two 
kinds of banking in the form of a pro¬ 
hibition to make loans on real estate, 
was introduced by Alexander Hamilton 
in the charter of the first Bank of the 
United States, which was followed in 
the articles of association of the 
Montreal Bank (the Bank of Mont¬ 
real), and was later laid down as a re¬ 
quirement by the Imperial Treasury 
authorities in 1833. 

We shall not attempt to follow the 
course of banking since the inception 
of the first bank in 1817, but it is neces¬ 
sary to indicate the condition of bank¬ 
ing and currency at the time of the 
confederation of the provinces into the 
Dominion of Canada in 1867. There 
were thirty-nine charters, but only 
twenty-seven banks doing business, now 
reduced to seventeen. The charters 
expired at various dates, from 1870 to 
1892. In Upper and Lower Canada 
(old Canada) shareholders were liable 
for double the amount of their stock, 
except that there was one bank en com-- 
mandite, the “principal partners” 
having unlimited personal liability. In 
most cases notes could be issued equal 
to the paid-up capital plus specie and 
government securities held. In old 
Canada and Nova Scotia, as a rule, 
total liabilities were restricted to three 
times, and in New Brunswick, to twice 


136 


Canadian Banking 


137 


the amount of the capital. There was 
also one bank with a royal charter, head 
office in England, and shareholders not 
under double liability. 

First General Bank Act 

Under these conditions, and after 
tentative legislation in 1867 and 1870, 
the first general Bank Act of the 
Dominion was passed in 1871 (34 
\ict., C.V.). It confirmed the special 
features in the bank working under a 
royal charter, and that with “principal 
partners” personally liable, and it will 
be understood in any statements here¬ 
after regarding banks as a whole that 
these institutions^ are not referred to. 
As the charters of other banks expired 
they were renewed under the Dominion 
Act. The first Act extended all char¬ 
ters for ten years, which practice has 
been followed thus far. The main re¬ 
visions have been four in number, and 
took place in 1880,1890,1900 and 1913. 
Of these, the second and last intro¬ 
duced the most important changes. 
In addition, there have been occasional 
amendments, usually of minor im¬ 
portance, between times. The Act 
now in force is that enacted in 1913, 
and is known as 3-4 George V, Chapter 
9, and it comes up for renewal this 
year. 

No Monopoly 

It has been occasionally urged that 
banking in Canada is a monopoly, and 
therefore unsuited to the democratic 
principles of this country. These 
writers have overlooked the fact that 
the legislation of Canada, whether in 
form or not, is in reality as liberal as it 
can w ell be. Banking in Canada is not 
in any sense a monopoly. Whether it 
can be said to be “free banking” as 
understood in the United States de¬ 
pends on what is meant by that term. 
In the United States a certain number 

^Not now in existence. 


of individuals having complied with 
certain requirements—^more numerous 
and complicated, by the way, than 
the Canadian requirements—become 
thereby an incorporated bank, if we 
regard the consent of the Comptroller 
of Currency as a matter of form. In 
Canada, merely in order to follow the 
British parliamentary methods, when 
a certain number of individuals have 
complied with certain requirements, 
they are supposed to have applied for 
a charter, which Parliament theoreti¬ 
cally might refuse, but which as a 
matter of fact would not be refused 
unless doubt existed as to the bona fide 
character of the proposed bank. Then, 
as in the United States, on complying 
with certain other requirements and 
obtaining the consent of the Treasury 
Board (performing in this case the 
same function as the Comptroller of 
Currency in the United States), the 
bank is ready for business. 

The main difference in the matter of 
obtaining permission to carry on the 
business of banking is that in Canada 
the subscribed capital must be $500,000, 
paid up to the extent of one-half, or 
$250,000, and this fact must be proved 
by the temporary deposit of the actual 
money with the Treasury Department 
at Ottawa. If it is contended that a 
monopolistic element is introduced by 
making the minimum paid-up capital 
$250,000, we have only to point to the 
varying minima of capital in the na¬ 
tional banking system of the United 
States, based upon the population of 
the city or town where a bank is estab¬ 
lished. The minimum with us is placed 
so high because to the power to carry 
on the business of banking is attached 
the privilege to open branches and to 
issue a bank-note currency not secured 
by special pledge with the Govern¬ 
ment. In the opinion of many Cana¬ 
dians the minimum is too small. In 
the history of Canada, as in other new 


138 


The Annals of the American Academy 


countries, the placing of the capital 
stock of new banks has been accompa¬ 
nied by all sorts of abuses. The so- 
called “cash’^ with which a bank has 
begun business has sometimes turned 
out to be largely composed of share¬ 
holders’ notes of hand, or any one of 
many other devices has been resorted 
to to make a “brave outside” for the 
public to look at. No restrictions will 
altogether prevent the occurrence of 
some form of deception; but without 
doubt, the present conditions are most 
carefully devised in order that it may 
be reasonably certain that each new 
bank authorized by Parliament will be 
an honest business venture. So much 
for the statement that banking is less 
“free” in Canada than in the United 
States. The very term “free banking ” 
is a misnomer; and it is to be hoped 
that there are many who will agree 
that a little less of freedom in the 
ability to create a bank, and a little 
more knowledge on the part of the 
people regarding the true function of 
banking, and its high place in the 
world of commerce would be for the 
public good. What we want is the 
most absolute evidence, when a bank 
is created, that its projectors are em¬ 
barking in a honafide venture and have 
put at risk a sum considerable enough 
to ensure that fact. 

“Double Liability” 

In Canada, as in the United States, 
shareholders in banks are subject to 
what is known as “double liability.” 
For the benefit of readers who may not 
understand the phrase, we will quote 
the section in full: 

“ In the event of the property and assets 
of the bank being insiiffieient to pay its 
debts and liabilities, eaeh shareholder of 
the bank shall be liable for the deficieney 
to an amount equal to the par value of 
the shares held by him, in addition to any 


amount not paid up on such shares” (Sec. 
125). 

We can remember when the practi¬ 
cal value of this power to call on the 
shareholders, in the event of the fail¬ 
ure of a bank for a second payment 
to the extent of the subscribed amount 
of the shares, was doubted by many. 
Shares were transferred just before 
failure to men unable to meet such calls 
and willing to be used in this manner, 
or shares were found to be held by men 
of straw who owed a corresponding 
amount to the bank. Or, again, 
many of the shareholders were bor¬ 
rowers for amounts far in excess of their 
holdings in shares, and the failure of 
the bank precipitated their failure as 
well, and they were thus unable to pay. 
Of course there were always some real 
investors among the shareholders, but 
the value of the double liability was a 
very variable and doubtful quantity. 
These features have not, as we know, 
all passed away but we have done as 
much as is possible to guarantee an 
honest share list and to prevent the 
shareholder from escaping his liability. 
Banks are not allowed to lend money 
on their own or the stock of any other 
Canadian bank (Sec. 76), and as the 
minimum paid-up capital of $250,000 
must be deposited with the Finance 
Department before a bank commences 
business, this*should ensure a honafide 
capital at the start. All transfers 
of shares must be accepted by the 
transferee. No transfers within 60 
days before failure avoid the double 
liability of the transferor, but he may 
collect, if he can, from the transferee. 
The fact that the capital is large and 
that the banks have many branches 
and a more or less national character, 
causes the stock to be widely held. 
In the largest banks the share list 
numbers from 7,000 to 8,000 names. 
No legislative checks, or even severe 


Canadian Banking 


139 


public scrutiny, will altogether prevent 
bad banking, but our banking history, 
since the confederation of the old prov¬ 
inces into the Dominion in 1867, shows 
that the double liability has been a 
most substantial asset, and has done 
much towards enabling liquidated 
banks to pay in full. 

Charters 

By Section 4 of the Bank Act the 
charters of all banks existing at the 
time of its enactment are extended for 
ten years, or until July 1, 1923, while' 
the charter of any new bank created 
during the period expires at the same 
time. Bankers, as a rule, used to 
think the period too short, and now 
that the principles of Canadian bank¬ 
ing appear to be firmly settled, that 
the period might reasonably be ex¬ 
tended to twenty years. The arrange¬ 
ment, however, ensures a complete re¬ 
view of the principles underlying the 
Act, and of the details connected with 
the working of it, once in ten years. 
During the session of Parliament pre¬ 
ceding the date of the expiry of the 
charters the system comes under attack 
from the demagogue, the bank-hater, 
the honest but inexperienced citizen 
who writes letters to the press, some¬ 
times the press itself, indeed, against all 
the kinds of attack to which institu¬ 
tions possessing a franchise granted by 
the people are subject when they come 
before the public to answer for their 
stewardship. But, while resisting the 
attacks of ignorance, bankers are, of 
course, called upon to answer such 
just criticisms as may arise from the 
existence of defects in the system made 
evident by the experiences of time. 
On the whole, the product of each dis¬ 
cussion has been a banking Act im¬ 
proved in many respects by the ex¬ 
change of opinion between the bankers 
and the public. 


Cash Reserves 

When the Government of Canada, 
shortly after Confederation, gave up 
all idea of creating a bank of issue or a 
national currency, it imposed upon the 
banks the condition that they must 
carry in their reserves a certain per¬ 
centage of legal-tender notes of the 
Dominion (Sec. 60). This is a distinct 
blot upon the Bank Act; but as the 
banks carry much more than the per¬ 
centage required, it probably might 
now be removed from the Act without 
causing the Government inconven¬ 
ience. In its early years, the Domin¬ 
ion had its credit to establish, and was 
called upon to make expenditures in 
public works, at a very heavy cost for 
a new and sparsely settled country, 
and it was obliged to resort to several 
financial expedients which with its 
present high credit would be not only 
unnecessary but very unwise. 

In proposing this feature, the Min¬ 
ister of Finance coupled with it the re¬ 
quirement that banks should hold a 
minimum cash reserve against all 
liabilities. This was strenuously ob¬ 
jected to by the bankers and was not 
insisted upon. In the revision of the 
Act in 1890, the Government again 
proposed the principle of a minimum 
reserve, and again the bankers were 
able by their arguments to demon¬ 
strate the unsoundness of such a re¬ 
quirement. 

The mere statement of the reserve 
in cash held by a particular bank, or 
the average held by the banks of an 
entire country, conveys little idea as to 
whether prudence is observed or not. 
In Canada the average for some years 
of actual cash held in gold and legal 
tenders as against all liabilities to the 
public has been about 10 per cent. 
But, owing to the system of bank-note 
issues, very little of this is required for 
daily use, the tills of bank ofl&ces being 


140 


The Annals of the American Academy 


filled with the bank’s own notes, which 
do not appear in its statements as cash 
because they are not in circulation. 
Practically, the business across the 
counter, when not transacted with 
other paper instruments, is served by 
this till money; the settlements of bal¬ 
ances with other banks are made in 
legal tenders, or by drafts on the chief 
commercial centers; while the main 
reserve may be, in the case of small 
banks, represented by their loans at 
call or short date on stocks and bonds 
and by their balances in the hands of 
correspondents at Montreal, New York 
and London. In addition to such 
sources of strei^gth the more important 
banks have agencies in the United 
States and England, and the bulk of 
the capital employed there can be made 
available without any delay, while 
practically all can be liquidated, under 
normal conditions, within a few months 
at most. 

Gold is not used as currency in 
Canada, and as we have to pay our 
foreign debts mainly in New York and 
London, our strength at these points in 
addition to actual cash is the practical 
test of our liquid position. 


Percentages op Quick Assets to Liabilities to 
Public December 31, 1922 


Specie and legal tenders... 
Do., and including cheques 
and notes of other banks, 

* balances due from other 
banks and call loans out 

$337,678,058 

14.38% 

of Canada. 

Do., and including invest¬ 
ments and call loans in 

581,233,509 

24.76% 

Canada. 

1,205,859,978 

51.37% 


Note Issues 

To most people. Sections 61 to 75, 
inclusive, are doubtless the most inter¬ 
esting in the Act. In Canada, we be¬ 
gan with the very simple and obvious 
theory that, without the existence of 
laws to the contrary, an individual had 
the right to issue his promise to pay in 
any form, the only deterrent to the 


exercise of such a luxury being the 
difficulty of inducing anyone to accept 
it in payment. For a considerable 
period, the law did not interfere with 
the exercise of this power, and in col¬ 
lections devoted to historical objects 
many curious specimens of money 
issued by private business as well as 
private banking firms may be found. 
Indeed, in refusing for such a long time 
to grant the privilege to an incorpo¬ 
rated bank, the first legislature of 
Lower Canada was, doubtless, moved 
only by the fear that, because of the 
express authority of law, the bank 
might be able to float an undue amount 
of such money. In the present Act, 
the mere right, apart from subsequent 
qualifications, is expressed in a few 
simple words: “The bank may issue 
and reissue its notes payable to bearer 
on demand and intended for circula¬ 
tion.” The qualifications accompany¬ 
ing this general power have growm from 
time to time until we believe that 
Canada now possesses the best cur¬ 
rency medium in the world. The 
main qualifications are as follows: 

1. Bank-note issues must not ex¬ 
ceed the aggregate of the unimpaired 
paid-up capital of a bank and of the 
amount of gold coin or Dominion notes 
held for it in the Central Gold Reserve. 

2. During the crop moving season, 
however, a bank may issue additional 
notes up to 15 per cent of the com¬ 
bined unimpaired paid-up capital and 
rest or reserve fund, after giving notice 
to the Minister of Finance of its in¬ 
tention to do so, for which privilege it 
shall pay interest at such rate, not ex¬ 
ceeding 5 per cent per annum, as the 
Minister may fix. 

3. A bank must not issue notes in 
denominations smaller than five dol¬ 
lars, or for any sum not a multiple of 
five dollars. 

4. No bank shall pledge, assign or 
hypothecate its notes and no loan made 









Canadian Banking 


141 


on such security shall be recoverable 
from the bank or its assets. 

Restriction of Paper Money 

In Canada, as in the United States 
and elsewhere since the war, the re¬ 
sulting difference in business trans¬ 
actions, after cheques and all other 
modern instruments of credit have 
l>een used, is almost entirely paid in 
paper money. It is therefore of the 
greatest importance that the amount 
of this paper money existing at any 
one time shall be as nearly as possible 
just sufficient for the purpose. That 
is, that there shall be a power to issue 
such money when it is required, and 
also a power to force it back for re¬ 
demption when it is not required. 

It may therefore, we think, be safely 
asserted, first, that there should be as 
complete a relation as possible between 
the currency requirements of trade and 
whatever are the causes which bring 
about the issue of paper money; and 
secondly, as it is quite as necessary 
that no over-issue should be possible 
as that the supply of currency should 
be adequate, there should be a similar 
relation between the requirements of 
trade and the causes which force notes 
back for redemption. 

Daily Redemption 

No bank dares to issue notes with¬ 
out reference to its power to redeem 
any more than a solvent merchant 
dares to give promissory notes without 
reference to his ability to pay. The 
presentation for actual redemption of 
every note not required for purposes of 
trade is assured by the fact that every 
bank seeks by the activity of its own 
business to keep out its own notes, and 
therefore sends back daily for redemp¬ 
tion the notes of all other banks. This 
great feature in the Canadian system 
is generally overlooked, but it is be¬ 
cause of this actual daily redemption 


that there has never been any serious 
inflation of the currency. Trade, of 
course, becomes inflated, and the cur¬ 
rency will follow trade, but that is a 
very different thing from the existence 
in a country of a great volume of paper 
money not required by trade. In the 
older countries of the world it may be 
sufficient if the volume of currency 
rises and falls with the general course 
of trade over a series of years, and 
without reference to the fluctuations 
within the twelve months of the year. 
In North America it is not enough that 
the volume of currency should rise and 
fall from year to year. In Canada we 
find that between the low average of 
the circulation during about eight 
months of each year and the maximum 
attained at the busiest period of the 
autumn and winter there is a wide 
.difference, the movement upward in 
the autumn and downward in the 
spring being so sudden, that without 
the power in the banks to issue, serious 
stringency must result in the autumn, 
and without the force which brings 
about redemption in the spring, there 
must be plethora. As a matter of fact 
it works automatically, and there is 
always enough and never too much. 

Since 1880 note issues have been a 
prior lien upon the estate of a bank, 
prior ev^en to a debt due to the Crown. 
This legislation was prompted by the 
failure of a small bank in 1879, which 
did not pay its notes in full. The 
bankers had urged such legislation in 
1869, and if they had succeeded in ob¬ 
taining it then, we should be able to 
say today that, without further secu¬ 
rity than this prior lien on all assets, 
note issues had always been paid in 
full, no matter how bad the failure of 
the issuing bank. 

Some Defects Removed 

At the revision of the Act in 1890 it 
was recognized that there were still two 


142 


The Annals of the American Academy 


minor thougli serious defects in the 
system. It was frequently alleged by 
those who admired the National Bank 
Act of the United States, that while 
the currency created by it might not be 
elastic, the notes could not for any 
reason fail to be paid in full, or to 
circulate without discount throughout 
the entire area of the United States, 
while in Canada no similar boast could 
be made. The area of Canada is 
enormous relatively to population, and 
the notes of banks in one province 
certainly passed at a discount in some 
of the others, a recurrence in a less ag¬ 
gravated form of a defect in the old 
State-bank issues of the United States. 
And, while it might be confidently as¬ 
serted that all bank issues secured by 
being a first lien on the estate of the 
banks would eventually be paid in full, 
it was nevertheless true that, because 
of doubt and delay, the notes of a sus¬ 
pended bank might fall to a discount 
for the time being. To meet these two 
defects, the bankers at this time 
proposed the following new features 
which were adopted by the Govern¬ 
ment: 

1. To avoid discount at the moment 
of suspension of a bank, either because 
of delay in the payment of the note 
issue by the liquidator, or of doubt as 
to ultimate payment, each bank is 
obliged to keep in the hands of the 
Government a deposit equal to 5 per 
cent on its average circulation, the 
average being taken from the maxi¬ 
mum circulation of each bank in each 
month of the year. This is called the 
Bank Circulation Redemption Fund, 
and should any liquidator fail to re¬ 
deem the notes of a failed bank, re¬ 
course may be had to the entire fund if 
necessary. As a matter of fact, liqui¬ 
dators are almost invariably able to 
redeem the note issues as they are 
presented, but, in order that all solvent 
banks may accept without loss the 


notes of an insolvent bank, these notes 
bear 5 per cent interest from the date 
of suspension to the date of the liqui¬ 
dator’s announcement that he is ready 
to redeem. 

2. To avoid discount for geographi¬ 
cal reasons, each bank is obliged to ar¬ 
range for the redemption of its notes 
in certain named commercial centers 
throughout the Dominion. 

Both of these reforms were suggested 
by the writer, but, like many other 
features in our Act, they were prompted 
by the experience of the United States 
in the period preceding the National 
Banking System. That our bank¬ 
notes are abundantly secured, so far as 
the public is concerned, seems evident 
from the fact that a note circulation 
at December 31, 1922, of $176,201,- 
351 was in effect secured by a prior 
lien on total assets of $2,618,638,104, 
to which must be added the double 
liability of the shareholders on the 
capital stock of the banks, making 
a total of $2,743,930,038. That the 
banks are not likely ever to lose a 
dollar by the system of guaranteeing 
each other’s notes seems quite clear. 
Daily redemption and other features 
in the Act make it difficult to create a 
forced circulation and, although we 
have had several fraudulent bank 
failures, there has never been a case 
where the assets on which we had the 
first claim did not easily protect us. 

Flexibility of Currency 

In the last revision of the Act the 
Central Gold Reserve was established 
and banks were authorized to enlarge 
their note issues to the extent of the 
“amount of current gold coin and of 
Dominion notes held for the bank in 
the Central Gold Reserves.” 

In earlier days when the average 
capital of each bank was small, we 
could count upon the necessity of an 
increased issue of a bank’s notes, which 


Canadian Banking 


143 


always bear a clear relation to the 
volume of its business, being met by 
increasing correspondingly the paid-up 
capital. But as the average capital of 
the banks increased, and the average 
dividend did also, and the length of 
time of each issue of a note lessened by 
the improvement of transportation, 
and taxation grew, banks were much 
less willing to take on new capital for 
the value of the note issuing privilege 
alone. They, however, fully realized 
their obligation to provide the cur¬ 
rency necessary for the business of the 
country, and thus the arrangement 
under which they can issue against 
gold or Dominion notes deposited with 
the trustees of the Central Gold Re¬ 
serve was authorized. 

In Canada gold is not used as a cur¬ 
rency, but as a bank reserve. Of the 
legal tenders issued by the Govern¬ 
ment, over seven-eights are held as 
bank reserves, while the remainder are 
the change-making notes—that is, 
those smaller than five dollars. So 
that the business of the country, apart 
from cheques and other credit instru¬ 
ments, is done with bank-notes, and 
small legal tenders. As Canada is a 
country with wide fiuctuations in the 
volume of business during the year, 
owing to crop moving and to the great 
variation in the seasons, great flexi¬ 
bility of the currency is needed. The 
following figures illustrate the range of 
the bank-note circulation during each 
of the last five pre-war years: 



Lowest 

Highest 

Percent¬ 
age OF 

Differ¬ 

ence 

1909 .... 

$65,819,067 

$89,633,549 

36.2 

1910 . . . . 

73,378,676 

95,992,866 

30.8 

1911 . . . . 

77,110,971 

105,855,021 

37.3 

1912. . . . 

88,065,521 

115,473,098 

31.1 

1913. . . . 

94,575,644 

119,497,321 

26.4 


The degree in which the bank-note 
circulation has met the expanding and 
subsequent contracting needs of busi¬ 
ness in general during the last few 
years is shown by the following table: 



Lowest 

Highest 

Percent¬ 
age OF 

Differ¬ 

ence 

1918.. . 

$171,674,464 

$234,982,978 

36.9 

1919.. . 

203,424,472 

237,547,162 

16.7 

1920.. . 

216,691,916 

249,165,707 

15.0 

1921.. . 

181,953,001 

207,417,917 

14.0 

1922.. . 

155,652,145 

178,623,690 

14.7 


The following figures of our total 
bank-note issues over a series of years 
afford an illustration of the growth of 
Canada: 


Date 

Amount 

Dec. 31st, 1867. 

$8,851,451 

18,526,212 

27,328,358 

35,006,274 

50,758,246 

228,758,587 

176,201,351 

Dec. 31st, 1870. 

Dec. 31st, 1880. 

Dec. 31st, 1890. 

Dec. 31st, 1900. 

Dec. 31st, 1920. 

Dec. 31st, 1922. 



Some Misconceptions Dispelled 

There are various misconceptions 
about the power of note issue granted 
to the banks, which it seems desirable 
to dispel. Many think that the money 
lent by a bank comes largely from its 
note issue, and upon the notion that 
each dollar of note issue is thus lent, 
build up a vast imaginary profit. The 
money lent by one of the larger banks 
comes from its deposits, its share capi¬ 
tal and rest fund, and its note issue 
in the proportion of 86 cents from 
deposits, 8 cents from shareholders’ 
funds, and 6 cents from note issue, for 
each dollar lent. 

In early days, when money was 









































144 


The Annals of the American Academy 


always scarce and roads and all trans¬ 
portation difficult, the note issue was 
much more valuable to a bank than it 
is now. Today the larger banks hold 
more actual cash than their note issues 
and paid-up capital combined. One of 
the most important elements in the 
note issue is that it enables hundreds 
of branches to be opened because the 
till money required can be so supplied. 
Without the saving of the interest 
which would otherwise be a charge on 
such branches, they could not exist. 
The public have very little idea of the 
cost of printing and keeping a note 
issue clean, to which is added a Do¬ 
minion tax of 1 per cent, the entire cost 
of maintaining the Central Gold Re¬ 
serve fund, and the interest (at present, 
5 per cent per annum) on all emer¬ 
gency notes. Nor do the public realize 
that this cost of printing and keeping 
clean applies just as heavily to the 
notes secured by the Central Gold Re¬ 
serve fund and the emergency notes 
for which we pay interest, on both of 
which there is therefore no profit, as on 
the issues against our unimpaired 
capital on which we pay no interest but 
a tax of 1 per cent per annum. The 
proportion of circulation on which 
there is a profit as compared with the 
proportion on which there is a loss, as 
at December 31, 1922, was 71 per 
cent for the former and 29 per cent for 
the latter. 

The Depositor 

Under our banking laws, as is very 
properly the case, the claim of the note 
holder is preferred to that of the de¬ 
positor in the event of a bank getting 
into difficulties. 

We must not expect that any gov¬ 
ernment will relieve a depositor from 
the necessity of using discretion as to 
where he places his money. Govern¬ 
ments never have done and never can 
do that. Men must use their intel¬ 


ligence, and after measuring the se¬ 
curity offered, judge where they should 
intrust their money. It is perhaps 
easier for a man with limited intelli¬ 
gence to make a selection if the banks 
have large capital and are of semi¬ 
national importance, provided, of 
course, the basis of the system is not 
unsound. In Canada, w^e do not ob¬ 
tain deposits from abroad, although 
we might not object to do so if money 
could be obtained at low enough rates 
of interest; and we do not lend on real 
estate. There are probably few coun¬ 
tries in the world where greater se¬ 
curity is offered to depositors. 

When the bank charters were under 
discussion in 1890, the writer had oc¬ 
casion to make publicly a statement 
which might now excite more criticism 
than it did then. In making a com¬ 
parison between individual banks with 
small capital and banks with branches 
and large capital, it was urged that 
“the probability of loss to the de¬ 
positors in one bank with several 
millions of capital is less than the prob¬ 
ability of loss to some of the depositors 
in ten or twenty small banks having in 
the aggregate the same capital and de¬ 
posits as the large bank.” 

The retort will be quickly made, 
“But if the large bank fails, the ruin 
will be just so much the more wide¬ 
spread.” 

This is quite true, but it is not an 
answer to the point, although it may 
appear to be so. If the conditions of 
two countries are about the same, and 
the ability of the bankers and the 
principles of the banking system are in 
other respects equally excellent, it 
must still remain true that the proba¬ 
bility of loss to some of the depositors 
in the ten or twenty small banks is 
greater than the probability of loss to 
any of the depositors in the one large 
bank. 


Canadian Banking 


145 


The Borrower 

In tlie banking systems of older 
countries, the borrower is not often 
considered. Men must borrow where 
and how they can, and pay as much or 
as little for the money as circumstances 
require. We believe too strongly in 
the necessity for an absolute perform¬ 
ance of engagements to think it neces¬ 
sary that any banking system should 
render the path of the debtor easy.' 
But in America the debtor class is apt 
to make itself heard, and the writer 
wishes to show what Canadian banking 
and the branch system do for the 
worthy borrower. 

In a country where the money ac¬ 
cumulated each year by the people’s 
savings does not exceed the money re¬ 
quired for new business ventures, it is 
plain that that system of banking is the 
best which most completely gathers up 
these savings and places them at the 
disposal of the borrower. This prac¬ 
tically means that the savings of slow- 
going communities are applied to other 
communities where the enterprise is 
out of proportion to the money at their 
own command. In Canada we see the 
deposits of the saving communities 
applied directly to the country’s new 
enterprises in a manner nearly perfect. 
One bank borrows money from de¬ 
positors at Halifax and many points in 
the Maritime Provinces, where the 
savings exceed the new enterprises, 
and it lends money in the West, where 
the new enterprises far exceed the 
savings. Another in the same manner 
gathers deposits in the unenterprising 
parts of Ontario, and lends the money 
in the enterprising localities of the 
same. The result is that many hun¬ 
dreds of business centers, in no case 
having an exact equilibrium of de¬ 
posits and loans, are able to adjust the 
excess or deficiency of capital, the de¬ 
positor obtaining a fair rate of interest, 
11 


and the borrower obtaining money at 
a lower rate than borrowers in cities or 
towns of relative size in most parts of 
the outlying British Empire and of the 
United States, except in the great 
centers of international finance. 

We believe that it should be the ob¬ 
ject of every country so to distribute 
loanable capital that every borrower 
with adequate security can be reached 
by someone able to lend, and the ma¬ 
chinery for doing this has always been 
recognized in the banks. That is 
surely not a good system of banking 
under which the surplus money in 
every unenterprising community has a 
tendency to stay there, while the sur¬ 
plus money required by an enterprising 
community has to be sought at a 
distance. If by paying a higher rate 
of interest, and seeking diligently, it 
could always be found, the position 
would not be so bad. The fact is that 
when it is most wanted, distrust is at 
its height, and the cautious banker 
buttons up his pocket. When there is 
no inducement to avert trouble to a 
community by supplying its wants in 
time of financial stress, there is no in¬ 
clination to do so. Banks with small 
capital and no branches are not apt to 
have a very large sense of responsibility 
for the welfare of the country as a 
whole, or for any considerable portion 
of it. But the banks in Canada with 
many hundreds of branches, with 
interests which it is no exaggeration to 
describe as national, cannot be idle or 
indifferent in time of trouble, cannot 
turn a deaf ear to the legitimate wants 
of the farmer in the Prairie Provinces, 
any more than to the wealthy mer¬ 
chant or manufacturer in the East. 
Their business is to gather up the 
wealth of a nation, not of a town or 
city, and to supply the borrowing wants 
of a nation. 

There are few countries in the world 
so well supplied with banking facilities 


146 


The Annals of the American Academy 


as Canada. The branch system not 
only enables every town of 1,000 or 
1,200 people to have a joint-stock bank, 
but to have a bank with a power be¬ 
hind it vastly greater than a bank 
would have such as is found in towns 
of similar size in the United States. 

The Branch System 

Although the number of establish¬ 
ments was very few, branch banking 
began soon after the first banks were 
created in 1817. For sixty or seventy 
years few banks had more than twenty- 
five or thirty offices, and we notice that 
in writing in 1897 the leading banks 
were referred to as having forty to fifty 
branches. Since then the develop¬ 
ment of Canada, and especially of the 
West, has greatly changed conditions. 
At December 31, 1922, the seventeen 
chartered banks of Canada had about 
4,671 branches, 4,472 of which are in 
Canada. 

The most striking feature is, of 
course, not the number of branches be¬ 
longing to any one bank, because in 
Great Britain our figures would look 
quite moderate, but the great area over 
which these branches are spread and 
the variety in the circumstances sur¬ 
rounding the banking business at the 
important points. Indeed, there are 
few things connected with the life of 
Canada that the banker can afford 
to leave unstudied, and it naturally 
follows that a bank with an army of 
trained observers and a well-organized 
system for the inter-communication of 
information other than the facts which 
must appear in bank returns and 
ordinary correspondence, is likely to 
have an advantage over those less well 
informed. 

Bank Failures 

From time to time bank failures take 
place in Canada, accompanied by 
evidence of reckless bad management 


and sometimes of great dishonesty. In 
times of unusual inflation several new 
banks are usually created. As a 
charter can be obtained by any set of 
individuals upon compliance with cer¬ 
tain express provisions in the Bank 
Act, men with more energy as pro¬ 
moters than skill in administering a 
bank, now and again appear in the 
banking world with the necessary per¬ 
mission to issue notes and to do a 
banking business. In each case as al¬ 
ready pointed out, a deposit of $250,- 
000 in cash must be made with the 
Finance Minister, accompanied by a 
declaration under oath that this repre¬ 
sents actual payments by shareholders 
on account of shares subscribed and 
that subscriptions have been obtained 
to the extent of $500,000, and .when the 
permission to do business has been 
granted by the Finance Minister the 
cash deposit of $250,000 is returned to 
the bank. In the case of a bank that 
failed some years ago it transpired that 
the $250,000 had been in part bor¬ 
rowed, and that the declaration made 
as to actual shares being subscribed to 
the required amount was false. We 
may as well admit that in a demo¬ 
cratic country like Canada we can 
never expect to prevent the creation 
of new banks merely because the pro¬ 
moters are without experience in bank¬ 
ing or have not established their repu¬ 
tation as honorable men; and as long 
as people will listen to mere promises 
of dividends, and will subscribe readily 
for shares in new banks without know¬ 
ing anything about the management, 
tlie Government cannot afford such 
shareholders much protection. 

The Canadian Bankers’ Association 

We occasionally see statements in 
the public press indicating a belief that 
the Canadian Bankers’ Association is 
a combination used for purposes ad¬ 
verse to the general interests of the 


Canadian Banking 


147 


public and it seems necessary to set 
forth its history so as to controvert 
such an unjust charge. At the revi¬ 
sion of the Bank Act in 1890 it became 
clear that if the bankers were to do 
their duty not merely at these decen¬ 
nial revisions but from time to time as 
conferences by the representatives of 
all the banks became necessary, they 
must create an association similar to 
those in Great Britain and in the 
United States. In January, 1891, 
eighteen banks desired to create such 
a body and after considerable discus¬ 
sion a voluntary organization known 
as the Canadian Bankers’ Association 
was established. It declared its pur¬ 
poses to be to watch legislation and 
court decisions relating to banking, to 
protect the interests of the contribu¬ 
tories to the Bank Circulation Re¬ 
demption Fund, and generally to guard 
the interests of the chartered banks; 
also to promote the education and 
efficiency of bank officers by various 
means. In the third year of the Asso¬ 
ciation, its Journal, now well known, 
issued its first number. 

Because of the mutual interest in¬ 
volved in the Bank Circulation Re¬ 
demption Fund, and of certain duties 
in that connection imposed upon the 
Association, it became necessary to 
create by Act of Parliament an Asso¬ 
ciation to replace the voluntary body 
and this was done in 1900 (c. 93, Do¬ 
minion Statutes). In this Act the 
objects and powers of the Association 
are (1) to promote the interests and 
efficiency of banks and bank officers, 
etc.; (2) to establish sub-sections of the 
Association; (3) to establish clearing¬ 
houses for banks, by-laws regarding 
which require the consent of the Treas¬ 
ury Board. More serious powers were 
those imposed by the Bank Act. When 
the banks undertook to guarantee the 
note issue of every bank they found 
that they needed the power to inspect 


the note issue records of each bank and 
some protection at the moment of the 
suspension of a bank. For these pur¬ 
poses the Bank Act gives the Associa¬ 
tion power (1) to appoint a curator to 
supervise the affairs of any bank which 
may suspend payment, until the re¬ 
sumption of its business or the appoint¬ 
ment of a liquidator; (2) to supervise 
the issue of bank-notes, including the 
making, delivery and destruction of 
the notes, and the inspection of the 
circulation accounts of the banks; (3) 
the custody and management of the 
Central Gold Reserves; (4) to impose 
penalties for the breach or non-observ¬ 
ance of any by-law, rule or regulation 
made by virtue of the section of the 
Act in question, all such by-laws, rules 
and regulations being subject to the 
approval of the Treasury Board. The 
very necessary and clearly defined 
powers and objects of the Association 
have been used for the benefit of good 
banking and the record of the Associa¬ 
tion is entirely to its credit. 

The Finance Act 

Little if anything in the financial 
history of Canada is more creditable 
than the Finance Act of 1914. The 
bankers in response to the call of the 
Finance Minister, met him in Ottawa 
on the 3rd of August, and the discus¬ 
sion resulted in the issue that night 
of the Order-in-Council which the 
Finance Act was passed to confirm. 
The Act is intended to meet ail emer¬ 
gency arising from “war, invasion, 
riot or insurrection, real or appre¬ 
hended, and in case of any real or 
apprehended financial crisis ” and as it 
operates by proclamation in whole or 
in part, there seems to be no objection 
to the Act remaining on the statute 
book. 

The Act authorized: (1) the Minister 
of Finance to make advances to the 
banks in the form of Dominion notes, 


148 


The Annals of the American Academy 


against securities satisfactory to the 
Treasury Board. (2) It authorized 
the banks to pay their debts in their 
own notes provided such notes were 
not issued in excess of the bank’s 
authority under the Bank and the 
Finance x4cts. (3) It made more elas¬ 
tic the use of emergency circulation 
already permitted by the Bank Act. 
(4) It suspended the redemption in 
gold of Dominion notes, and (5) it 
made a general moratorium possible 
at any time by mere proclamation. 

The Dominion notes or legal tenders 
issued during the war, were thus quite 
different from the fiat money of many 
countries. They were based upon 
securities pledged by the borrower, 
they were used practically only by the 
banks and became the basis for en¬ 
larged issues of bank-notes under the 
regulations of the Central Gold Re¬ 
serve. Now that the war is over it can 
be seen that there was no inflation of 
the currency as such, but merely that 
larger use of currency which accompa¬ 
nies an increase in the volume of 
commodities and of prices; and now 
that such expansion of trade has dis¬ 
appeared, a contraction of our cur¬ 
rency has followed without any dis¬ 
turbance whatever. 

A prominent feature of the Finance 
Act was the power given to the banks 
to pay all liabilities in their own notes. 
By many this is supposed to have been 
a measure entirely in aid of the banks, 
but its main objects were for the pres¬ 
ervation of national finance. Individ¬ 
uals here as in other countries had to 
be prevented from hoarding gold, and 
particularly from exporting gold, and 
if for no other reason the power re¬ 


ferred to had to be given to the banks. 
But the banks had no power to issue 
currency except under the Bank and 
the Finance Acts and when their 
respective obligations reached the 
clearing house they had to pay their 
obligations in Dominion notes or their 
equivalent. There was no fiat money 
of the kind issued in some countries to 
aid the financial position. 

The power to proclaim a moratorium 
was never exercised. 

We must hope that a return to a 
gold basis will not be much longer de¬ 
layed, but unless something equally 
valuable takes its place, the power to 
make advances to the banks should 
remain in force for the present. We 
have always to meet the financial 
effect of the long winter over which w^e 
have to carry our cereal products, and 
the rapid rush beforehand to avoid 
this, and there are other movements 
of commodities with somewhat similar 
difficulties. When the pound sterling 
was on a gold basis the banks could 
draw on London against their credit 
or their securities, and thus find the 
means to pay foreign debts as against 
the later arrival in Europe of these 
products, but just now, they cannot 
do this without a risk in exchange 
rates which they could not afford to 
take. Many, of course, desire to see 
a bank of re-discount established, but 
this is a much more diflacult and 
dangerous system unless guarded by 
restraints not present in recent ex¬ 
amples of such banking. Without 
severe restrictions and a loss of profit 
to all who require such aid, a system of 
re-discounts may become the most 
active instrument of inflation. 


Comparative Prices in Canada and the United States 

By H. Michell, M.A. 

Professor of Political Economy, McMaster University, Toronto 


G enerally speaking, the course 

of prices in Canada during the 
war and post-war period has followed 
the trend familiar in all other coun¬ 
tries, or at least all in which deliberate 
inflation of currency has not obscured 
the issue. It is but natural to suppose 
that two countries such as Canada and 
the United States, the nearest neigh¬ 
bors, and bound together by the closest 
commercial ties, would exhibit almost 
identical price movements; but it is 
worthy of note that this has not been 
entirely the case. Indeed, it is safe 
to say that a closer resemblance may 
be found in the course of prices in 
England and Canada than in that of 
Canada and the United States, a re¬ 
semblance which has been noted by 
more than one competent observer.^ 
The reason for this similarity between 
the course of prices in Canada and 
England is not easy to explain; in fact 
it may even be without signiflcance 
and perhaps fortuitous. There are, 
however, certain general conditions 
which may be mentioned as giving 
grounds for this similarity between 
English and Canadian prices. In the 
first place, it may be remembered that 
Canada, as a member of the British 
Empire, entered the war at the same 
time as England, and two years and a 
half before the United States. Actual 
war conditions were, therefore, preva¬ 
lent in the first two and not in the 
third for some considerable time before 
they were general in all three. Sec¬ 
ondly, since the war the financial 
policy of the Federal Reserve Board 
tended to raise prices in the United 
States quicker after the decline than 
^ Federal Reserve Bulletin, July, 1922, p. 804. 


in Canada or England. Thirdly, it is 
possible that the passing of the Fordney 
Tariff Act has tended to raise prices 
in the United States and depress them 
in Canada, more especially in such 
farm products as enter the United 
States from Canada, notably wheat. 
It is probably, however, unsafe to do 
more than suggest these general possi¬ 
bilities; and indeed, as we have al¬ 
ready remarked, the resemblance may 
only be fortuitous. 

Course of Wholesale Prices 

Turning now to a more detailed 
comparison between the course of 
wholesale prices in the three countries, 
we are fortunate in having at our 
disposal the international price in¬ 
dexes of the Federal Reserve Board, 
which give us not only the prices in the 
different countries included in their 
respective currencies, but also con¬ 
verted to a gold basis. It will be 
noted with interest that Canada 
reached a strictly gold basis in August, 
1922, when the discount on the Ca¬ 
nadian dollar in New York funds dis¬ 
appeared. This, of course, means that 
the comparison in price levels between 
the two countries is now absolute. 
The calculations of the Federal Re¬ 
serve Board disclose the fact that 
wholesale prices in Canada are now the 
lowest of any of the five countries 
included in its surveys,—-United States, 
England, France, Canada and Japan. 

General Movement of Prices in 
Canada 

In general it may be said that in 
Canada, as in the United States, to 
quote the Federal Reserve Bulletin, 


150 


The Annals of the American Academy 


TABLE I 


International Wholesale Price Index—Federal Reserve Board 


Year and Month 

Based on Prices in Respective 
Currencies 

Converted to Gold Basis 

United 

States 

Canada 

England 

United 

States 

Canada 

England 

1913. Average. 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

1919. “ . 

211 

207 

241 

211 

199 

221 

1920. “ . 

239 

250 

314 

239 

223 

242 

1921. “ . 

148 

167 

201 

148 

150 

159 

1921 







September. 

146 

158 

194 

146 

141 

148 

October. 

145 

149 

187 

145 

136 

149 

November. 

145 

145 

177 

145 

133 

144 

December. 

142 

145 

172 

142 

135 

147 

1922 







January. 

142 

144 

170 

142 

137 

148 

February. 

146 

149 

167 

146 

145 

150 

March. 

147 

150 

168 

147 

145 

151 

April. 

149 

152 

167 

149 

148 

151 

May. 

158 

154 

171 

158 

152 

156 

June. 

161 

153 

169 

161 

151 

154 

July. 

165 

154 

171 

165 

152 

156 

August. 

165 

149 

168 

165 

149 

154 

September. 

164 

144 

165 

164 

144 

150 

October. 

165 

145 

163 

165 

145 

148 


“prices of finished consumers’ goods ad¬ 
vanced to a higher post-war peak than 
raw materials or semi-manufactured 
goods.” This entailed hardships of a 
very serious nature on the producers of 
the basic raw materials, farmers in par¬ 
ticular. Not only was this so, but the 
decline in prices brought even greater 
hardships on them, as will be seen at a 
glance from table above, in which the 
relative declines of the raw material, 
semi-finished and finished products in 
Canada are compared. 

Canada, as being in large measure 
a producer of basic raw materials, and 
not having reached the same level 
of industrial development as the United 
States or Great Britain, has probably 
suffered more severely from this uneven 


fall in prices as a whole than the other 
two countries. It may be said, how¬ 
ever, that the very real accession of 
wealth that has come to the Dominion 
in the last few years has offset in some 
degree the hardship thus entailed. 
The conclusion that a country needs 
all-round development both in agri¬ 
culture and industry is inevitable; 
and as Canada advances in industrial¬ 
ization, she will doubtless suffer less 
from these violent fluctuations in the 
prices of her agricultural products. 

Retail Prices 

The general course of retail prices 
in the countries follows that of whole¬ 
sale prices and affords some interesting 
comparisons. 









































Comparative Prices in Canada and the United States 


151 


TABLE II 


Commodity 

Highest 

Nov., 1922 * 

Decline 

Wheat, per bushel. 

$3.15 

1.11 

Per Cent 
64.7 

Flour, patents per bbl. 

13.70 

7.20 

47.4 

Bread, per lb. 

.087 

.067 

22.9 

Beef, live weight, per cwt. 

16.50 

6.75 

59.1 

Beef, dressed hindquarters, c\n t. 

34.00 

15.00 

55.8 

Beef, rib roast prime, lb. 

.40 

.22 

45.0 

Hogs, live weight, selects, cwt. 

23.75 

11.25 

52.6 

Pork, dressed, cwt. 

30.00 

17.00 

43.3 

Bacon, dressed, lb. 

.55 

.34 

38.2 

Hides, green, lb. 

.40 

.11 

72.5 

Leather, sides, lb. 

.78 

.55 

29.5 

Boots, men’s kip, pair. 

4.60 

4 00 

15.0 


* End of month. 


TABLE III 
Retail Prices, Foods 



Canada 

United 

States 

1914. July. 

100 

100 

1915 

104 

98 

1916 . 

114 

109 

1917 . 

157 

143 

1918 . 

175 

164 

1919 . 

186 

186 

1920 . 

227 

215 

1921 . 

148 

145 

1922 . 

138 

139 




Canada, Labour Gazette. United States, Bureau 
of Labor Statistics (recalculated). 


It will be noted that prices of foodstuffs 
rose quicker and more sharply in 
Canada, but that they have fallen a 
shade farther. The total advance in 
Canada was 127 per cent and in the 
United States 115 per cent, while the 
decline has been 39 per cent in Canada 
and 35 per cent in the United States. 

Fuel and Light 

Turning now to fuel and light, we 
find a slightly less violent rise, but a 


much less steep decline than in food¬ 
stuffs. 

TABLE IV 
Fuel and Light 



Canada 

United 

States 

1914. 

100 

100 

1915. 

96 

100 

1916. 

103 

101 

1917. 

131 

122 

1918. 

160 

152 

1919. 

165 

161 

1920. 

213 

168 

1921. 

190 

178 

1922. 

191 

170 


Sources: Canada, Labour Gazette. United States 
Monthly Labor Review. 


Here the advance in Canada was 113 
per cent and the decline only 10 per 
cent, while in the United States the 
advance was 78 per cent and the de¬ 
cline has only been 5 per cent. 

Rent 

The item of rent affords a most 
striking comment upon the undoubted 
house shortage owing to lack of con- 
































































152 


The Annals of the American Academy 


struction during the war, a shortage 
that recent building activity has been 
unable to satisfy. 


TABLE V 
Rent 



Canada 

United 

States 

J914. 

100 

100 

1915. 

87 

99 

1916. 

89 

99 

1917. 

98 

103 

1918. 

106 

112 

1919. 

121 

127 

1920. 

143 

137 

1921. 

151 

153 

1922. 

153 

156 


Sources: Ibid. 


The sharp decline in Canada immedi¬ 
ately after the beginning of the war 
was undoubtedly due to the absence 
of great numbers of men on military 
service when many of their families 
“doubled up,” the big advance coin¬ 
ciding with the coming of peace and 
the return of the troops. 

Clothing 

The last item, the retail prices of 
clothing, affords some interesting com¬ 
parisons. The severe advance, cul¬ 

TABLE VI 


Clothing 



Canada 

United 

States 

1914. 

100.0 

100.0 

1915. 

113.6 

104.1 

1916. 

130.3 

120.2 

1917. 

151.5 

149.1 

1918. 

180.0 

213.8 

1919. 

212.9 

284.5 

1920. 

236.4 

294.8 

1921. 

151.5 

229.8 

1922. 

140.9 

180.2 


Sources: Ibid. 


minating in 1920, is attributable to T 
the demands made upon the clothing . 
trade for the manufacture of uniforms! 
and the very high’prices of wool and! 
cotton, while the decline is attributable 1 
to the fall in the price of these two* 
staples. The recent advances in price ■ 
of both wool and cotton will probably I 
lead to slightly higher prices of clothing 
in the future. 

In this item the advance in Canada 
was one of 136 per cent and the decline 
40 per cent. In the United States the 
advance was 195 per cent and the 
decline 40 per cent. It is not easy to 
explain the greater rise in the United 
States. Perhaps the silk shirt craze 
was more pronounced in the former 
than in the latter. 

Cost of Living 

We may now, by combining the 
indexes of retail prices of foodstuffs, 
fuel and light, rent and clothing, arrive 
at some conclusion as to the relative 
costs of living in the two countries 
since 1914. For this purpose it will 
be necessary for us to weight the vari¬ 
ous items, which we may do somewhat 
roughly by assigning 4 to food, 3 to 
rent, 2 to clothing and 1 to fuel and 
light. Our final figures for the series 
will then be as follows: 


TABLE VII 

CoMP.vRATiVE Cost of Living in Canada 
AND United States 



Canada 

United 

States 

1914. 

100.0. 

100.0 

1915. 

99.9 

99.7 

1916. 

108.6 

107.4 

1917. 

135.6 

130.1 

1918. 

•153.8 

157.2 

1919. 

169.8 

185.4 

1920. 

202.3 

202.9 

1921. 

153.8 

167.7 

1922. 

148.4 

155.4 























































Comparative Prices in Canada and the United States 


153 


If now we compare the rise and fall 
of wholesale and retail prices in Can¬ 
ada, the United States and Great 
Britain, taking the wholesale price 
index numbers of the Federal Reserve 
Board for that purpose, we find the 
following: 


post-war preoccupation of all classes. 
During the war the people were too 
much occupied with the struggle to 
notice very much the rapidly rising 
cost of living. Employment was ex¬ 
cellent and wages were rising rapidly; 
in the munitions services they were at 


TABLE VIII 

Percentage Rise and Fall of Wholesale and Retail Prices in Canada, the United 

States and Great Britain 



Wholesale * 

Retail f 


Rise 

Fall 

Rise 

Fall 

Canada. 

150 

42.4 

102 

26.7 

United States. 

139 

40.6 

103 

23.1 

Great Britain.. 

214 

48.0 

178 

38.1 






* Base 100 = Average prices 1913. 
t Base 100 = Average prices 1914. 


To come to any definite conclusion 
with regard to the relative cost of living 
at the present moment, or at any time 
during the war period, in the three 
countries is very difficult, if not en¬ 
tirely impossible. 

The term “cost of living” is an 
elusive one and it is unsafe to draw 
conclusions. It is not very difficult 
to draw comparisons of rise and falls, 
but it is far more difficult to compare 
our bases. When we say that the 
average prices in 1914 in the three 
countries are each equal to 100, we 
have said nothing whatever as to the 
actual standard of living that this 
figure represents. It would probably 
be quite unsafe to say that the cost 
of living in Canada today is lower 
than in the United States. Such prob¬ 
lems present innumerable pitfalls for 
the unwary, and the wise man, cau¬ 
tiously if ingloriously, refrains from 
definite conclusions. 

The great rise and fall of prices in 
Canada, as elsewhere, has been the 


unheard-of levels. But with the peace 
and the return of great numbers of men 
to civil life, the boom of 1919 and the 
swift collapse of 1920, the peoples’ 
attention became engrossed with the 
problem of the cost of living. 

Attempt by Government Fails 

The general exasperation caused by 
the continuance of high retail prices 
led to the appointment, manifestly 
against the better judgment of the 
Government, of a Board of Commerce 
armed with plenary powers to prosecute 
profiteers. The history of this un¬ 
happy venture is too long to enter into 
here, we may also say too confused, but 
in a very short time the endeavors of 
the Board to stop the rise of prices be¬ 
came farcical in the extreme. With 
great pomp and ceremony a few gro¬ 
cers, caught selling bacon a few cents 
a pound higher than what the Board 
considered proper, were prosecuted. 
Soon dissensions arose among the 
members of the Board, and they all 





















154 


The Annals of the American Academy 


resigned amid the laughter of the peo¬ 
ple. For sometime longer it continued 
as a kind of disembodied ghost with 
three government officials as members 
of the Board, and its last act was to 
decree a fixed price for suger in order 
to protect the refiners who had been 
caught in the disastrous fall in prices 
of that commodity. This so incensed 
the public that the Government was 
forced to disallow the decision, and 
the Board of Commerce finally dis¬ 
solved, while the last act of this tragi¬ 
comedy came shortly afterwards when 
the Privy Council declared the Board 


to have been illegally constituted from 
the beginning. Thus ended Canada’s 
experiment in keeping down the cost 
of living by government enactment, 
an experiment not likely ever to be 
repeated. 

The great decline ended at the 
beginning of 1922, and a slow but 
steady upward climb began. How 
far this trend will be carried it is im¬ 
possible to say, but we are probably 
safe in supposing that for many years 
to come the level of prices will be 
far below those of the great peak of 
1920. 


The Foreign Trade of Canada 

By Victor Ross 

Vice-President, Imperial Oil Limited, Toronto 


A PECULIARITY of Canadian 
conditions is the importance of 
external trade in the national life. To 
some extent a raw material country 
which must send her products abroad; 
to some extent devoid of certain essen¬ 
tial articles; to some extent disjointed 
geographically, so that the parts tend 
to trade with foreign neighbors instead 
of with more or less separated fellow- 
provinces; of recent years vigorous in 
pushing the sales of her manufactures: 
in all these cases her commercial opera¬ 
tions are prone to extend across her 
borders. This seems a constant charac¬ 
teristic; at all events it has existed long, 
has grown with the development of the 
country, and now has assumed re¬ 
markable proportions. With fewer 
than nine millions of population Can¬ 
ada today has the fourth place in the 
world in actual volume of exports, and 
in per capita proportion she comes first, 
as the accompanying graphs set forth. 

Actual Volume of Trade 

The figures for the last three decades 
show the rapidity of the growth of 
foreign trade. ^ 


Population has grown from not 
quite five millions to not quite nine 
millions; foreign trade has grown from 
two hundred millions to figures which 
fluctuate between two and a half bil¬ 
lions (at the peak of war activity in 
1918) and a billion and a half at what 
probably is the lowest point to be 
realized; and from a little over forty 
dollars a head to more than four times 
that proportion—in the war year of 
1918 it touched $300 a head. 

In studying this remarkable volume 
and its rapid growth allowance must be 
made for the disturbing factor of the 
war; on the one hand conditions were 
exceptional and readjustment has been 
necessary, while on the other hand 
necessity spurred Canadians to efforts 
which may be expected to have perma¬ 
nent effects in some departments of 
trade. To show the sudden swelling 
and the period of deflation, it will 
be well to exhibit separately the 
years immediately preceding the war, 
the war years, and the succeeding 
period. First, the three years before 
the war as shown in first table on 
the next page. 


% 

Year 

Exports 

Exports 
Per Head 

Imports 

Imports 
Per Head 

Total Ex¬ 
ternal Trade 

External 
Trade Per 
Head 

1891. 

$88,671,738 

$18.31 

$111,533,954 

$23.02 

$200,205,792 

$41.33 

1901. 

177,431,386 

32.84 

177,930,919 

33.13 

354,509,143 

65.97 

1911. 

274,316,553 

38.06 

452,724,603 

62.82 

727,041,156 

100.88 

1921. 

1,189,163,701 

740,240,680 

135.31 

1,240,158,882 

141.11 

2,420,322,583 

276.42 

1922. 

80.32 

747,804,332 

83.39 

1,488,045,012 

163.71 








1 Statistics given for years subsequent to 1907 are for the fiscal year ending on 31st March. The 
exports are of Canadian produce; when exports of foreign produce are included the totals are some¬ 
what larger. 


155 

























156 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Year 

Exports 

Exports 
Per Head 

Imports 

Imports 
Per Head 

Total Ex¬ 
ternal Trade 

External 
Trade Per 
Head 

1912. 

$290,223,857 

355,754,600 

431,588,439 

$39.40 

47.26 

56.10 

$522,404,675 

671,207,234 

619,193,998 

$70.93 

89.17 

80.49 

$812,628,532 

1,026,961,834 

1,050,782,437 

$110.33 

136.43 

136.59 

1913. 

1914.. . 



Next the years affected by the struggle: 


Year 

Exports 

Exports 
Per He.\d 

Imports 

Imports 
Per Head 

Total Ex¬ 
ternal Trade 

Total 
External 
Trade 
Per Head 

1915. 

$409,418,836 

$52.07 

$455,955,908 

$57.99 

$865,374,744 

$110.06 

1916. 

741,610,638 

92.29 

508,201,134 

63.24 

1,249,811,722 

155.53 

1917. 

1,151,375,768 

144.75 

846,450,878 

103.48 

1,997,826,580 

247.32 

1918. 

1,540,027,788 

184.91 

963,532,578 

115.69 

2,503,560,366 

300.60 

1919. 

1,216,443,806 

143.47 

919,711,705 

108.48 

2,136,155,513 

251.95 


Here we have the initial check, the bound forward to the amazing figures 
of 1917-18, and the drop due to the ending of hostilities in the third quarter 
of 1918-19. Finally, the years after the war: 


Year 

Exports 

Exports 
Per Head 

Imports 

Imports 
Per Head 

Total Ex¬ 
ternal Trade 

Total 
External 
Trade 
Per Head 

1920. 

$1,239,492,098 

$143.60 

$1,064,528,123 

$123.33 

$2,304,020,221 

$266.93 

1921. 

1,189,163,701 

135.31 

1,240,158,882 

141.11 

2,420,322,583 

276.42 

1922. 

740,240,680 

80.32 

747,804,332 

83.39 

1,488,045,062 

163.71 


It may be added that the most recent statistics suggest that external trade 
once more is on the increase. “Twelve months” figures, those for the fiscal 
year ending 31st March last being repeated for the sake of comparison, are: 


Period 

Exports 

Imports 

Total Trade 

12 mos. ending 31 Mar. 

$740,240,680 

792,796,845 

815,530,510 

$747,804,332 

732,904,818 

740,261,771 

$1,488,045,062 

1,525,701,653 

1,555,792,281 

“ “ “ " 30 Sept. 

“ “ “ 31 Oct. 




















































































157 


The Foreign Trade of Canada 


Thus in the first seven months of the 
current financial year exports increased 
by 10 per cent and imports by 1 per 
cent, the total trade increasing by 
rather more than 3 per cent. More¬ 
over, the general tendency seems to be 
towards growth. 

Summarizing these tables, we find 
that in the period immediately preced¬ 
ing the war the foreign trade of Canada 
rose from eight hundred millions to a 
billion a year, with a heavy preponder¬ 
ance of imports, which accounted for 
from three-fifths to two-thirds of the 
total trade; that during the war 
foreign trade reached two billions and 
a half, exports now furnishing some 
three-fifths of the volume; and that in 
the post-war period it has shrunk to a 
billion and a half, but seems inclined 
to rise, with the two balanced, exports 
in the most recent returns surpassing 
imports. 

Unquestionably the drop from the 
magnificent totals of a year or two ago 
is severe, and has hurt. Production, 
however, is not so badly reduced as the 
values would suggest; the official cal¬ 
culation is that, while the falling off 
in 1922 as compared with 1921 is some 
40 per cent, about 25 per cent out of 
the total decrease is due to declines in 
prices, and about 15 per cent is caused 
by lessened quantities. 


Distribution of Exports 
Such being the volume of the ex¬ 
ternal trade, we may scrutinize its 
geographical distribution. A highly 
important characteristic is that more 
than four-fifths of it is with the two 
great English-speaking countries, the 
United Kingdom . and the United 
States. A second characteristic, at all 
events until the end of the war, was 
the triangular nature of this trade, 
Canada selling more heavily to Great 
Britain and buying more heavily from 
the United States; the war accentu¬ 
ated this. Speaking broadly, Canada’s 
trade rests upon her exports, large 
proportionately and large in sheer 
volume, to Great Britain. As regards 
exports, the table below sets out 
conditions in the quarter of a century 
before the war. Great Britain thus 
took about half of Canadian exports 
and the United States 40 per cent or 
less. At one time, in 1898, the mother 
country’s share rose to 64.4 per cent, 
that of the United States falling in 
the same year to 27 per cent. Mean¬ 
while, an increasing share of the im¬ 
ports was obtained by the Americans, 
and their trade with Canada increased 
in rather direct ratio to the decline in 
the proportion of British goods sold 
to us, and so in 1914 the United States 
had 64 per cent of the Canadian im¬ 
port trade. 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

Proportion 

To United 
States 

Proportion 

Other 

Countries 

Proportion 

1891. 

$43,243,784 

48.8 p. c. 

$37,743,430 

42.6 p. c. 

$7,684,524 

10.6 p. c. 

1896. 

62,717,941 

57.2 “ 

37,789,481 

34.4 “ 

9,200,383 

8.4 “ 

1901. 

92,857,525 

52.3 “ 

67,983,673 

38.3 “ 

16,590,188 

9.4 “ 

1906. 

127,456,465 

54.1 “ 

83,546,306 

35.5 “ 

24,481,185 

10.4 “ 

1911. 

132,156,924 

48.2 “ 

104,115,823 

38.0 “ 

38,043,806 

13.8 “ 

1914. 

215,253,969 

49.9 “ 

163,372,825 

37.9 “ 

52,961,645 

13.2 “ 




























158 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Year 

From United 
Kingdom 

Proportion 

From United 
States 

Proportion 

Other 

Countries 

Proportion. 

1891. 

$42,018,943 

37.7p.c. 

$52,033,477 

46.7p. c. 

$17,481,534 

14.6 p. c. 

1896. 

32,824,505 

31.2 “ 

53,529,390 

50.8 “ 

19,007,266 

18.0 “ 

1901. 

42,820,334 

24.1 “ 

107,377,906 

60.3 “ 

27,732,679 

15.6 “ 

1906. 

69,183,915 

24.4 “ 

169,256,452 

59.6 “ 

45,299,913 

16.0 “ 

1911. 

109,934,753 

24.3 “ 

275,824,265 

60.8 “ 

66,965,585 

14.9 “ 

1914. 

132,070,406 

21.4 “ 

396,302,138 

64.0 “ 

90,821,454 

14.6 “ 


During the war, as already observed, the proportion of exports going to 
Great Britain somewhat increased, and the Americans supplied nearly all of 
the imports purchased by Canada while the proportion purchased from other 
countries rose from 12 to 18 per cent betw^een 1915 and 1919. First as to 
exports: 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

Proportion 

To United 
States 

Proportion 

To Other 
Countries 

Proportion 

1915. 

$186,668,554 

45.6 p. c. 

$173,320,216 

42.3 p. c. 

$49,930,066 

12.1 p. c. 

1916. 

,451,852,399 

60.9 “ 

201,106,488 

27.1 “ 

88,651,751 

12.0 “ 

1917. 

742,147,537 

64.5 “ 

280,616,330 

24.4 “ 

128,611,901 

11.1 “ 

1918. 

845,480,069 

54.9 “ 

417,233,287 

27.0 “ 

277,314,432 

18.1 “ 

1919. 

540,750,977 

44.5 “ 

454,873,170 

37.4 “ 

220,819,659 

18.1 “ 


And next as to imports it will be seen that purchases from Great Britain 
dwindled steadily during the war years, and that the imports from the United 
States reached record figures, wdiich found its first reflection in a depreciated 
currency. 


Year 

Imports from 
THE United 
Kingdom 

Per Cent 

Imports from 
THE United 
States 

Per Cent 

Imports from 

OTHER 

Countries 

Per Cent 

1915. 

$90,157,204 

19.8 

$297,142,059 

65.2 

$68,656,645 

15.0 

1916. 

77,404,361 

15.2 

370,880,549 

73.0 

59,916,224 

11.8 

1917. 

107,096,735 

12.7 

665,312,759 

78.6 

74,041,384 

8.7 

1918. 

81,324,283 

8.4 

792,894,957 

82.3 

89,313,338 

9.3 

1919. 

73,035,118 

8.0 

750,203,024 

81.6 

96,473,563 

10.4 


The post-war period has seen a partial reversion to earlier conditions, 
with Great Britain slowly returning to a position of importance as a market 
for Canadian products, but with “other countries” on the whole maintaining 
their importance. The export figures are; 








































































The Foreign Trade of Canada 


159 


Year 

Exports to 
THE United 
Kingdom 

Per Cent 

Exports to 
THE United 
States 

Per Cent 

Exports to 

OTHER 

Countries 

Per Cent 

1920. 

$489,152,637 

39.5 

$464,028,183 

37.4 

$286,311,278 

23.1 

1921. 

312,844,871 

26.3 

542,322,967 

45.6 

333,995,863 

28.1 

1922. 

299,361,675 

40.4 

292,588,643 

39.5 

148,290,362 

20.1 


Again we may look at the latest statistics, to see at what trend they hint: 


Period 

To United 
Kingdom 

Propor¬ 

tion 

To United 
States 

Propor¬ 

tion 

To OTHER 

Countries 

Propor¬ 

tion 

12 mos. ending 31 Mar. 
“ “ 30 Sept. 

“ “ 31 Oct. 

$299,361,675 

311,294,751 

326,370,742 

40.4 p. c. 
39.2 “ 
40.0 “ 

$292,588,643 

322,624,068 

327,037,218 

39.5 p.c. 

40.6 “ 
40.1 “ 

$148,290,362 

158,878,026 

162,122,550 

20.1p. c. 
20.0 “ 
19.9 “ 


The trend is not particularly noticeable; the figures move upward slowly, 
the proportions are steady, and if the figures suggest anything, it is that the 
recovery by Great Britain of her place in Canadian trade is proving a slow 
process. What is noticeable is the way in which the well-distributed trade to 
“other countries” holds its proportion. 

Turning now to imports in the post-war years, we have: 


Year 

Imports 
FROM United 
Kingdom 

Proportion 

Imports 
FROM United 
States 

Proportion 

Imports 
FROM Other 
Countries 

Proportion 

1920. 

$126,362,631 

11.9 p. c. 

$801,097,318 

75.3p.c. 

$137,068,174 

12.8 p. c. 

1921. 

213,973,562 

17.3 “ 

856,176,820 

69.0 “ 

170,008,500 

13.7 “ 

1922. 

117,135,343 

15.7 “ 

515,958,196 

69.0 “ 

114,610,793 

15.3 “ 


And to continue the “tendency” figures: 


Period 

Imports 
FROM United 
Kingdom 

Propor¬ 

tion 

Imports 
from United 
States 

Propor¬ 

tion 

Imports 
FROM Other 
Countries 

Propor¬ 

tion 

12 mos. ending 31 Mar. 
“ “ 30 Sept. 

“ “ 31 Oct. 

$117,135,343 

127,437,704 

131,701,079 

15.7p.c. 
17.3 “ 
17.7 “ 

$515,958,196 

492,965,967 

493,610,038 

69.0 p. c. 
67.2 “ 
66.6 “ 

$114,610,743 

112,501,147 

114,950,654 

15.3 p. c. 
14.5 “ 
15.7 “ 

















































































160 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Attention may be drawn to the in¬ 
crease in exports to “other countries,’’ 
rising from sixteen millions at the be¬ 
ginning of the century to more than 
fifty millions in the year before the 
war, and to about one hundred and 
fifty millions in the deflation year of 
1922. Imports from them also have 
increased, from less than thirty millions 
in 1901 to ninety millions in 1914 and 
to $114,000,000 in 1922. As already 
remarked, this amounts to about a 
fifth of Canadian trade; even this pro¬ 
portion is rather a new thing, as the 
tables for pre-war trade exhibit. The 
increase is gratifying to Canadians, 
whose governments have striven for 
years to open new markets. In 1922 
the commerce with continental Europe 
was $102,600,000; that with the West 
Indies and the Guianas (a trade which 
has been especially cultivated) was 
nearly $50,000,000; that with the 
Orient was nearly $30,000,000; and 
that with South America, excluding the 
Guianas, was $28,500,000. Going more 
into detail regarding these secondary 
streams of traffic, the total trade in 
1922 exceeded ten millions in the case 
of the following countries: 



Japan. 

. .. $23,023,000 

France. 

21,676,000 

Italy. 

16,723,000 

Belgium. 

16,177,000 

Netherlands. 

13,585,000 

Australia. 

11,719,000 

Newfoundland. 

10,705,000 

It exceeded five millions in the case 
of the following: 

Switzerland. 

. . .. $8,017,000 

Peru. 

7,055,000 

India. 

6,917,000 

Germany. 

. ... 6,516,000 

Greece. 

. ... 6,281,000 

New Zealand. 

.. . . 5,912,000 

Argentine. 

. .. . 5,588,000 

In most of these. 

exports heavily 

outweight imports; 

France, Switzer- 

land and India are exceptions. Trade 

with British Africa, 

at present de- 


pressed, in the three years before the 
war ranged from ten to fifteen millions. 

Principal Commodities Exported 

Turning now to the principal sorts 
of articles sold by Canada, the follow¬ 
ing is the analysis of the exports of 
1921 and 1922 according to the new 
classification, supplied by the Do¬ 
minion Bureau of Statistics: 


I. Raw Materials 


Year 

To the United 

To THE United 

To Other 

Total 

Kingdom 

States 

Countries 

1921.. 

$118,081,103 

$237,159,548 

$170,530,973 

$525,707,724 

1922. 

103,289,002 

108,414,084 

57,707,850 

329,370,942 


11. Partly Manufactured Articles 


Year 

To THE United 
Kingdom 

To THE United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total 

1921. 

• 

$44,378,927 

20,125,101 

$131,826,610 

72,704,547 

$20,758,280 

14,397,856 

$196,963,817 

107,227,564 

1922. 
























































The Foreign Trade of Canada 

III. Fully or Chiefly Manufactured Articles 


161 


19^21 

1922 


To the United 

To THE United 

To Other 

Total 

Kingdom 

States 

Countries 

$150,384,841 

$173,336,809 

$142,710,610 

$466,432,260 

115,947,512 

111,470,012 

76,224,650 

303,642,174 


Thus in both years over 40 per 
cent of Canadian exports were raw 
materials, about 40 per cent were 
manufactured articles, and the re¬ 
mainder, about one-sixth, were partly 
manufactured. Despite the heavy 
decline in trade, the proportions of 


the three categories remained fairly 
constant. 

The Bureau of Statistics further 
separates exports into nine categories. 
We now may study the course of the 
export trade in these categories in the 
three years since the war: 


Vegetable Products (Except Chemicals, Fibres and Wood) 


Year 

To THE United 
Kingdom 

To THE United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920 . 

1921 . 

$249,409,394 

141,169,556 

196,199,365 

$55,735,692 

146,539,883 

47,587,209 

$110,675,049 

194,431,005 

73,792,389 

$415,820,135 

482,140,444 

317,578,963 

1922.. 



Animals and Their Products (Except Chemicals and Fibres) 


Year 

To THE United 
Kingdom 

To THE United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920. 

$138,885,994 

91,291,301 

70,368,963 

$130,997,017 

75,751,046 

48,391,355 

$44,134,933 

21,317,590 

17,038,402 

$314,017,944 

188,359,937 

135,798,720 

1921. 

1922. 



Fibres, Textiles and Textile Products 


Year 

To the United 
Kingdom 

To THE United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920 . 

$3,851,357 

2,643,202 

1,020,612 

$12,472,456 

7,122,882 

1,996,634 

$17,704,501 

9,017,800 

1,568,741 

$34,028,314 

18,783,884 

4,585,987 

1921. 

1922 . 



12 






































































162 The Annals op the American Academy 


Wood, Wood Products, and Paper 


Year 

To THE United 
Kingdom 

To THE United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total 

Exports 

1920. 

$42,026,282 

$153,686,140 

$18,201,522 

$213,913,944 

1921. 

36,761,384 

216,011,556 

31,788,538 

284,561,478 

1922. 

15,664,295 

148,065,672 

16,195,920 

179,925,887 


Iron and Its Products 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

To United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920. 

$15,874,157 

25,717,121 

$40,194,551 

$81,785,829 

1921. 

17,653,826 

19,630,413 

39,216,502 

76,500,721 

1922. 

4,758,888 

4,693,020 

18,860,364 

28,312,272 


Non-Ferrous Metals and Their Products 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

To United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920. 

$9,260,569 

$37,545,943 

$8,169,901 

$54,976,413 

1921. 

9,873,516 

30,029,799 

6,036,062 

45,939,377 

1922. 

5,997,576 

14,687,260 

7,201,160 

27,885,996 


Non-Metallic Minerals and Their Products 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

1920. 

$3,121,157 

3,127,338 

3,253,427 

1921. 

1922. 



To United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

$17,488,266 

$9,733,503 

$30,342,926 

22,270,447 

14,724,107 

40,121,892 

12,605,032 

6,758,225 

22,616,684 


Chemicals and Allied Products 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

To United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920. 

$3,894,732 

3,399,815 

1,062,757 

$13,803,067 

12,236,087 

5,937,136 

$5,185,886 

4,730,377 

2,506,277 

$22,883,685 

20,366,279 

9,506,170 

1921. 

1922. 






















































































The Foreign Trade of Canada 163 


All Other Commodities 


Year 

To United 
Kingdom 

To United 
States 

To Other 
Countries 

Total Exports 

1920. 

$22,828,995 

6,924,933 

1,035,792 

$16,582,481 

12,730,854 

8,625,325 

$32,311,432 

12,733,882 

4,368,884 

$71,722,908 

32,389,669 

14,030,001 

1921. 

1922. 



Analysis shows that three of these in 1922 the quantity sent abroad ex¬ 
categories accounted for about four- ceeded by seven million bushels the 
fifths of the exports: exportation of 1921, and yet the value 


Article 

1920 

1921 

1222 

Vegetable products. 

35.5p. c. 

25.3 “ 

17.2 “ 

40. 6 p.'^c. 

15.8 “ 

23.9 “ 

42.9 p. c. 

18.3 “ 

24.3 “ 

Animal products. 

Wood and paper. 

78.0 p. c. 

80.3 p. c. 

85.5 p. c. 


It is to be observed, too, that as 
deflation proceeded these staples as¬ 
sumed a position of increasing im¬ 
portance. 

It may be of interest to give the 
figures for some of the larger items in 
the exports: 


of the larger quantity was $131,000,000 
less than that of the smaller quantity. 
The quantity of cheese exported in 
1922 was almost exactly equal to that 
sold abroad in the preceding year, but 
the decline in value was nearly twelve 
millions. In bacon and hams an in- 


Article 

1920 

1921 

1922 

Wheat.. 

$185,044,806 

, $310,952,138 

$179,990,730 

Fisherv nroducts. 

40,687,172 

44,985,757 

33,130,003 

21,463,891 

29,339,877 

Live cattle. 

1 8,265,966 

Meats. 

96,161,234 

44,501,520 

29,826,541 

Paper. 

63,253,419 

92,103,307 

69,523,418 

Logs and sawmill products. 

105,353,420 

115,684,475 

70,790,996 



Some of the foregoing cases illustrate 
the effect which prices have upon the 
figures. The reduction in the money- 
value of the wheat exports was alto¬ 
gether due to the halving of the prices; 


crease of nearly a million pounds was 
coupled with a decrease of $8,000,- 
000. Still more striking is the case 
of sugar; the quantity exported rose 
from 65,700,000 pounds to 140,- 




















































164 


The Annals of the American Academy 


800,000, and the value fell from 
$11,800,000 to $10,900,000. Speaking 
generally, indeed, the quantities of 
goods exported and imported showed 
comparatively little decrease. 

Exports of Manufactures 

A phase of their export trade in 
which Canadians take much interest 
is that relating to manufactures; the 
exigency of the war and the accom¬ 
panying demand for munitions caused 
a great advance in this department of 
trade, and the desire and aptitudes 
engendered persist. It was a step, 
however, in a development which has 
been in progress for a long time. Origi¬ 
nally Canada was almost wholly a raw 
material country; her exports of manu¬ 
factures in the three years following 
Confederation averaged less than two 
and a half millions, and at the time 
when the protective movement began 
were only four millions a year. In the 
period from 1901 to 1905 they exceeded 
twenty-one millions a year; in the next 
quinquenniad they had topped thirty 
millions. Then the rapid growth be¬ 
gan. In the pre-w^ar years the record 
was: 


Deflation still leaves a heavy export 
in this category. Exact comparison of 
the three post-war years cannot be 
made owing to a change in the method 
of compiling statistics; but the 1920 
exports of manufactures under the old 
system were $435,000,000, those of 
“fully or chiefly manufactured arti¬ 
cles” in 1921 under the new classifica¬ 
tion were $446,000,000, and in 1922 
they were $303,000,000. 

The alteration in the significance of 
this category is impressive. In the 
earlier nineties manufactures accounted 
for 7.5 per cent of the total exports, 
and in the later nineties they con¬ 
stituted 8.3 per cent. In the two 
opening quinquenniads of the present 
century they had risen to 10.4 and 11.9 
per cent respectively. In the four 
years preceding the war they remained 
at 13 and 14 per cent. Leaving aside 
the abnormal war years, we find that 
in 1920 manufactures were 35 per cent, 
and in 1921 and 1922 were about 40 
per cent of the country’s exports. The 
steady growlh of manufactured articles 
has attracted much attention in the 
country. 

One interesting thing in the present 


Year 

Exports 

Proportion to Total 
Exports 

1911. 

$40,432,526 

13.9 p. c. 

1912. 

42,508,985 

13.8 “ 

1913. 

52,525,082 

13.9 “ 

1914. 

67,602,238 

14.8 “ 


The war period 

saw enormous 

pansion: 


1915. 

. . $95,068,525 

1916. 

. . 250,052,223 

1917. 

. . 487,312,766 

1918. 

. . 660,840,430 

1919. 

.. 571,498,678 


trend is that the so-called balance of 
trade has begun to favor Canada. On 
the whole it has been against her; in 
the fifty-five years since Confederation 
the balance has been favorable only in 
ten, and five of these were those of the 
war. The adverse American exchange 



















The Foreign Trade of Canada 


165 


caused Canadians to make a serious 
effort to curtail imports from the 
United States, and apparently these 
for the time have been effective; in the 
fiscal year 1921-22, exports and im¬ 
ports nearly balanced, the latter lead¬ 


ing by some seven and a half millions 
in a trade of nearly a billion and a half, 
and in the very latest twelve-month 
period the exports lead by seventy-five 
millions. Tariff legislation has since 
checked this leading. 


166 


The Annals of the American Academy 



















































































































The Foreign Trade of Canada 


167 



























































































165 

155 

145 

135 

125 

115 

105 

95 

85 

75 

65 

65 

46 

35 

26 

15 


The Annals'^of the American Academy 



























































































The Foreign Trade of Canada 


169 


Aggregate External Trade of Canada, 1901-1921. 



Each vertical line represents one year from 1901 to 1919, and each horizontal line 
represents $50,000,000 from zero to $2,500,000,000. 



























































































































































































































































The Flow of Capital—Canada 

By Harvey E. Fisk 

Bankers Trust Company, New York City; Author of “The Dominion of Canada,” “English Public 

Finance,” “French Public Finance” 


T here is nothing more elusive 
than capital. Economists speak 
of the “flow of capital” as if we were 
dealing with a river which, rising in the 
mountains, finally finds its way to the 
ocean, receiving rivulets as it pro¬ 
gresses, turning water wheels, bearing 
on its bosom all kind of craft, fertilizing 
lands by its overflow or as the result 
of irrigation projects, and finally by 
joining the Gulf Stream coursing 
around the globe. The simile is not 
a bad one, but we must not overlook 
the fact that the water is apt to be 
sucked up by whirlwinds or by trade 
winds—to be again scattered over the 
earth at some distant point, while 
at all times the sun is absorbing mois¬ 
ture from the stream to be poured 
forth again as rain. Just as it is im¬ 
possible accurately to measure the 
fluctuations in the volume of water in 
the stream and to tell how it is aug¬ 
mented or diminished and all of the 
different uses to which it may have 
been put, so it is practically impossible 
to measure the flow of capital. The 
best we can do, in the present state of 
the statistical data on this subject, 
is to indicate the general trend. 

The Flow of Public Capital 

In Canada there has been a close 
interlacing of public finance and of 
private finance—more so than in 
either the United Kingdom or in the 
United States. In this respect Canada 
seems to have been influenced by her 
French ancestry rather than by her 
Anglo-Saxon ancestry. 

By direct investments in public enter¬ 
prises, by loans and by guarantees, the 


Canadian Government and to some ex¬ 
tent the provinces and the munici¬ 
palities have made possible a more 
rapid development of the country than 
otherwise would have been practicable. 

This has been especially true in the 
field of transportation. In 1902 the 
Dominion Government was advancing 
$167,300,000 to assist transportation 
by rail and nearly .$100,000,000 to 
promote water transportation. These 
amounts increased yearly until, as 
shown by Table I, on March 31, 1914, 
they stood at $411,900,000 and $177,- 
000,000, respectively. 

During the same period investments 
in other public works had doubled, 
increasing from just under $8,000,000 
to just under $16,000,000. 

Such investments in public works 
and services were not put an end to by 
the war. On the contrary they mark¬ 
edly increased during that period, 
so that on March 31, 1921 (the latest 
date for which statistics have been 
published) the Dominion had nearly 
a billion and a quarter of dollars 
invested in transportation:—just under 
a billion in rail and a little over a 
quarter of a billion in water trans¬ 
portation; while some $81,000,000 had 
gone into other public works. 

During this period the Dominion 
also advanced just under half a billion 
dollars to the British and foreign gov¬ 
ernments. Unpaid advances of this 
latter character, on March 31, 1921, 
amounted to $187,400,000. These 
data are detailed in Table II. 

The war cost the Dominion almost 
exactly two billion dollars, 9 per cent 
of which was met from taxation. 


170 



171 


The Flow of Capital—Canada 

TABLE I 

Dominion of Canada 
Assets 
1902-1914 


{00,000 omitted) 


Advances for 

June 

30,1902 

March 
31, 1907 

March 
31, 1909 

March 
31, 1912 

March 
31,1914 

Increase 

OR 

Decrease 

1 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

Transportaiion 





Railway. 

167,3 

198,0 

254,4 

333,7 

411,9 

244,6 

Water, Canals and Har- 




bors. 

90,7 

112,6 

113,7 

132,6 

154,2 

63,5 

Waterways, Docks, etc. 

8,2 

12,5 

15,2 

19,2 

22,8 

14,6 

Advances to 







Provinces. 

10,7 

4,0 

2,3 

2,3 

2,3 

-8,4 

Territories. 

4,5 

7,6 

9,1 

.9,9 

9,9 

5,4 

Miscellaneous 







Militia. 

3,0 

8,3 

10,8 

12,1 

12,1 

9,1 

Public Works. 

7,7 

9,2 

10,6 

11,9 

15,7 

8,0 

Banks and Financial In- 




stitutions. 

Grain and Relief Ac- 

1,5 

.... 

1,3 

.... 

.... 

-1,5 

counts. 

• • • • 

• • • • 

1,2 

0,8 

0,6 

0,6 

Coinage. 

.... 

• • • • 

0,1 

1,4 

2,1 

2,1 

Other Assets 







Consolidated Fund. 

0,9 

• • • • 

• ♦ • • 



—0,9 

Cash Account. 

1,4 

• • • • 

19,7 

15,5 

13,2 

11,8 

Investment: Sinking 
Fund and Consolidated 







Fund. 

51,1 

47,2 

45,6 

12,5 

9,3 

—41,8 

Specie Reserve. 

18,9 

37,6 

61,8 

99,2 

101,4 

82,5 

Miscellaneous. 

0,6 

0,3 

0,3 

0,2 

0,2 

—0,4 

Total. 

366,5 

437,3 

546,1 

651,3 

755,7 

389,2 


The means for making the invest¬ 
ments in transportation and other 
public works, in foreign loans and to 
meet the costs of war were largely 
derived from borrowing. 

In the pre-war period the Dominion 
had borrowed almost exclusively from 
the United Kingdom, such loans on 
March 31, 1914, amounting to $311,- 
100,000, while domestic debt, including 
Dominion notes outstanding, aggre¬ 
gated at that time $233,300,000. 


During and after the war period 
permanent market loans from the 
United Kingdom remained stationary, 
increasing slightly in 1915 and 1916, 
but decreasing almost in the same 
amount in 1920 and 1921. 

The Canadian and British treasuries 
interchanged credits during the war. 
On March 31, 1921, there was still 
due to Canada by the United King¬ 
dom $141,414,000. Presumably this 
amount has since been liquidated. 









































172 


The Annals of the American Academy 



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The Flow of Capital—Canada 17S 

TABLE III 
Dominion of Canada 


Liabilities 
1902-1914 
{00,000 omitted) 



June 

30, 1902 

March 
31, 1907 

March 
31, 1909 

March 
31, 1912 

March 
31, 1914 

Increase 

OR 

Decrease 


$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

Funded Debt 







United Kingdom. 

227,9 

208,8 

277,8 

282,0 

302,8 

74,9 

United States. 

• • • • 

• • • • 





Canada. 

9,0 

7,3 

4,8 

4,7 

0,7 

-8,3 

Temporary Debt 







United Kingdom. 

• • • • 

• « • • 

9.7 


8,3 

8,3 

United States. 

• • • ♦ 

• • • • 

.... 




France. 

• • • • 

« • * • 

3,9 




Canada. 

.... 

.... 

.... 

.... 

.... 

.... 

Dominion Notes . 

32,8 

54,8 

79,3 

113,3 

117,8 

85,0 

Other Debt . 

96,8 

109,0 

103,0 

108,3 

114,8 

18,0 

Total Debt. 

366,5 

379,9 

478,5 

508,3 

544,4 

177,9 

Summary 







Foreign Loans. 

227,9 

208,8 

291,4 

282,0 

311,1 

'83,2 

Domestic Loans. 

138,6 

171,1 

187,1 

226,3 

233,3 

'94,7 

Consolidated Fund. 

.... 

57,4 

67,6 

143,0 

211,3 

211,3 

Total Liabilities. 

366,5 

437,3 

546,1 

651,3 

755,7 

389,2 


The great increase of debt after 
1914 was made at home, so that on 
March 31, 1921, the Dominion owed 
her own people $2,441,200,000 while 
she owed abroad only $461,200,000. 
Foreign borrowings were offset by the 
advances to the extent of $187,200,000 
to the mother country and foreign 
nations to which we have already 
referred. 

The detailed figures of borrowings 
for the war period and since are set 
forth in Table IV. 

British and Foreign Investments 
IN Canada 

We have seen that the Dominion 
Government has in the past borrowed 


substantial sums in the United King¬ 
dom and in the United States. The 
Canadian provinces and municipalities 
have also been heavy borrowers from 
abroad as have been corporations, 
firms and individuals. A careful study 
of all available data leads to the 
conclusion that upwards of three and a 
half billion dollars worth of foreign 
capital had been invested in Canada 
up to the beginning of the war, in 
1914. 

Mr. Coats, the Dominion Statisti¬ 
cian, estimates the borrowings from 
the United Kingdom to have been 
$2,700,000,000 and from the United 
States $750,000,000, while from another 
good authority we have an estimate of 
















































174 


The Annals of the American Academy 


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The Flow of Capital—Canada 


175 


about $150,000,000 having been bor¬ 
rowed in other countries. Since 1914 
the United Kingdom has invested only 
small amounts in Canada; in fact, on 
account of the necessities of the war 
she is supposed to have resold some 
$200,000,000 of her former Canadian 
investments which would nearly offset 
new investments which she has made, 
so that the total investment of the 
United Kingdom in Canada would 
today appear to be not materially 
more than the amount at which it 
stood in 1914. This estimate is sub¬ 
stantially below the one commonly 
accepted which is about four billion 
dollars, but I can find no basis for 
adopting the higher figure, although 
undisclosed data might justify a figure 
somewhat higher than the face of the 
statistics apparently justifies. 

The United States and Her 
Canadian Investments 

The United States would now appear 
to have invested in Canada, in round 
figures, two and a half billion dollars 
or almost as much as the British in¬ 
vestment, while other foreign countries 
may still have a small amount invested. 
This would give as the total invest¬ 
ment of foreign and British capital, 
as of January, 1923, in Canadian 
government, provincial, municipal and 
corporate securities, properties and 
enterprises, about five and a quarter 
billion dollars. 

The investment of American capital 
since 1915 has been very large and this 
has been especially true since the 
Armistice. The two and a half billion 
dollars or thereabouts which the United 
States now is lending to Canada may 
be roughly allocated, about $1,200,000- 
000 invested in bonds and the re¬ 
mainder invested directly or indirectly 
(through holdings of shares in stock 
companies), in farms, in mortgages 
on real estate, in industrial enter¬ 


prises, in banking, in small business 
undertakings and in private loans. 
Although, as another analyst of these 
statistics has said, the “figure looks 
rather high, the available material 
offers no grounds for reasonable criti¬ 
cism.” 

It is computed that more than two 
hundred branch factories were opened 
in Canada by Americans in 1919 and a 
great number in 1920 and 1921, and 
that late in 1922 there must have been 
over seven hundred such establish¬ 
ments, with a further number seeking 
suitable locations. One of the incen¬ 
tives for this development is that the 
American manufacturers can thus sup¬ 
ply the Canadian market and at the 
same time escape the Canadian tariff. 
Another is that by manufacturing in 
Canada they are able to enjoy the 
preferential treatment accorded to 
Canadian goods by many countries 
within the British Empire, while, 
under the terms of an agreement with 
France existing since 1907, Canada’s 
products enter that country under 
especially favorable conditions. 

It was estimated in 1919, when the 
last survey was made, that United 
States capital practically controlled 
the motor car accessory, proprietary 
medicine and artificial abrasions in¬ 
dustries, while the motor car industry 
was divided in the proportion of 61 
per cent United States and 39 per cent 
Canadian capital. Over 40 per cent 
of the electrical apparatus, meat-pack¬ 
ing, rtibber, paint and varnish, brass 
and copper, condensed milk and refined 
petroleum industries was United States 
owned. 

American investment in Canadian 
industries has unquestionably largely 
increased since 1919. For example, it 
is estimated that in 1920 around 
$250,000,000 of American money was 
invested in the Canadian pulp and 
paper industry or about 80 per cent 


176 


The Annals of the American Academy 


of the total capital invested in that 
industry. 

As this article is being written, word 
comes that American capitalists are 
preparing to still further develop, on 
a very large scale, Canada’s incompar¬ 
able water powers. 

All the indications point to an 
equalization at an early date of British 
and American investment in Canada. 

The Foreign Trade of Canada 

A study of the foreign trade of 
Canada throws a flood of light upon 
the flow of capital between Canada, 
the mother country, and foreign lands. 
For the past twenty-three years at 
least Canada always has exported to 
England goods of a greater value than 
those imported. Her trade with the 
United States has invariably been just 
the other way around—the value of 
imports from the United States has 
largely exceeded the value of exports 
to the United States. During this 
period Canada was sometimes a credi¬ 
tor of the other countries with which 
she traded and sometimes a debtor, 
but on balance she was a creditor. 

From 1900 to 1914 Canada was a 
creditor of the mother country on 
trade balance for $819,000,000, a 
debtor to the United States for $1,649,- 
000,000 and a debtor to other foreign 
countries for $301,000,000. For the 
period she had a net debit balance for 
$1,131,000,000. 

During the war period the relative sit¬ 
uation remained substantially the same, 
that is Canada was still a creditor of 
Great Britain, a debtor of the United 
States but a creditor of the rest of the 
world. 

Because of the insistent war demand 
for food and munitions, exports in the 
eight years following 1914 were more 
than double what they were for the 
preceding fifteen years. Imports did 
not proportionately increase, although 


in the eight years Canada consumed « 
foreign goods valued at 33 per cent more 9 
than the value placed upon goods pur- ■ 
chased during the previous fifteen years. B 

If space allowed, it would be interest- I 
ing to analyze more fully the returns. ■ 
It may be observed that increased 1 
purchases in the United States coin- V 
cided with the greatly increased in- J 
vestment of American funds in Canada V 
which we have already noted. This 1 
may be merely a coincidence and it may I 
be an illustration of the old adage that I 
“trade follows the dollar.” i 

The Invisible Factors I 

In order to get at the flow of capital I 
between Canada and other lands there 1 
are many factors to be taken into I 
consideration besides those disclosed I 
by trade statistics. In the first place J 
there is the fact that exports abroad I 
sometimes go from Canada through I 
the United States and sometimes from I 
the United States through Canada. I 
Conversely imports from abroad some- I 
times reach Canada or reach the I 
United States indirectly through the 
ports of these neighboring countries, 
thus swelling import and export sta¬ 
tistics but not the actual volume of 
goods. It is only necessary to call 
attention to these crossing and inter¬ 
lacing trade currents to see how diflBcult 
it is to give mathematical expression j 
to the flow of capital between Canada 
and other countries. 

Then, too, we must make allowance 
for interest adjustments and for freight 
charges not only on the ocean between j 
Canada and other lands, but also 1 
inland water-borne freights and rail- , 
borne freights between Canada and the ! 
United States. Then there are to be 
accounted for the items of insurance, of 
bankers’ profits, of travellers’ expend¬ 
itures, of money and property brought 
into the country by immigrants and 
of their remittances back home. 




The Flow of Capital—Canada 


177 


An analysis of these so-called “in¬ 
visible” trade factors for the period 
from 1900 to 1914 was made in 1914 
by Mr. R. H. Coats, the Dominion 
Statistician. No similar study has 
yet been made for the post-war period. 
The writer has made a very rough 
calculation for this period which may 
serve to give a general idea of the 
situation. It is gratifying to note that 
Mr. Coats is assembling material 
from which he hopes during the next 
year to prepare an official estimate. 

The following table covering the 
pre-war period is made up as to in¬ 
visible items and capital account from 
Mr. Coats’ 1914 estimate. The trade 
figures are from Trade of Canada. The 
imports are what are technically known 
as “Imports Entered for Consumption 
(Merchandise) ” and the exports are 
“Exports of Merchandise,”—Canadian 
produce, plus exports of foreign goods, 
previously imported. It will be noted 
that the indebtedness of the mother 
country to the Dominion on trade 
account was considerably more than 


offset by the amount owed to her by 
Canada for interest and profits on 
capital invested in Canada. The 
United States was a heavy creditor 
on trade balance; she was also a moder¬ 
ate creditor on interest account. Her 
new capital investment was small 
—only about $550,000,000, while the 
United Kingdom in the same period 
invested $1,700,000,000 with her daugh¬ 
ter overseas. 

Mr. Coats tells us that the authori¬ 
ties on this subject agree in estimating 
that the railways made the largest 
demands for capital, then the govern¬ 
ment and municipalities, then indi¬ 
vidual enterprises, then land and 
lumber companies and finally mining 
companies. 

The story of the post-war period is 
contained in the table on p. 178. We 
have already discussed the trade figures. 
Interest account again helps to balance 
the account with the United Kingdom, 
and now markedly increases the 
amount due to the United States. 

This time the United States “ploughs 


Canada in Account with World 
1900-1914 

{In dollars — 000,000 omitted) 



United 

Kingdom 

United 

States 

Other 

Countries 

Total 

Exports—Merchandise. 

2,026 

1,209 

1,423 

3,094 

467 

768 

3,916 

5,071 

Imports—Merchandise. 

Net Merchandise Balance. 

Cr. 817 
Cr. 2 

Dr. 1,671 
Cr. 22 

Dr. 301 

Dr. 1,155 
Cr. 24 

Snecie—Net. 

Net Trade Balance.. . ... 

Cr. 819 
Dr. 1,263 

Dr. 1,649 
Dr. 175 

Dr. 301 
Dr. 50 

Dr. 1,131 
Dr. 1,488 
Cr. 103 

Interest Account. 

Other “Invisible” Items—Net. 

Net Trade Balance, including Visible 
nnrl Tnvisiblo Items. 

Dr. 444 
Cr. 1,700 

Dr. 1,824 
Cr. 550 

Dr. 351 
Cr. 50 

Dr. 2,516 
Cr. 2,300 

Canital Account . 



Cr.—in favor of Canada; Dr.—against Canada. 


13 




































178 


The Annals of the American Academy 


back” a big share of her receipts in 
Canadian investments, while the 
mother country barely holds her po¬ 
sition as Canada’s chief creditor on 
investment account. Apparently there 
is a large unliquidated balance due 
from the United Kingdom, and also 
a considerable balance due from for¬ 
eign countries other than the United 
States. Assuming that these balances 
have partly been used in settling the 
debit balance due to the United States, 
the indications are that Canada has a 
large amount still due her from abroad, 
or it may be that these balances have 
been used to settle with the United 
States and that the United States has 
made a brand new investment in 
Canadian enterprises of a billion and 
three quarters of dollars. This is 
apparently what has happened. It 
will be interesting to see what Mr. 
Coats’ analysis discloses. 


Banking Capital 

Fortunately for Canada, early in 
her history a system of banking was 
adopted which has proved to be ad¬ 
mirably suited to her requirements. 
The banks have perfect control of 
the credit situation by reason of the 
fact that there are but seventeen char¬ 
tered banks in the Dominion, which 
banks have nearly five thousand 
branches located in all sections of the 
Dominion and Newfoundland; also 
in Great Britain and in foreign coun¬ 
tries. Thus the banking and credit 
system is under the supervision of a 
few large and powerful and well- 
managed institutions headed by trained 
bankers. Through the branch system 
they are able to keep closely in touch 
with every part of the country and to 
obtain accurate information regarding 
the status of any industry, both local 


Canada in Account with World 
1915-1922 

{In dollars — 000,000 omitted) 



United 

Kingdom 

United 

States 

Other 

Countries 

Total 

Exports—Merchandise. 

3,964 

887 

2,978 

5,043 

1,585 

811 

8,527 

6,741 

Imports—Merchandise. 

Net Merchandise Balance. 

Cr. 3,077 
Dr. 17 

Dr. 2,065 
Cr. 303 

Cr. 774 
Dr. 3 

Cr. 1,786 
Cr. 283 

Specie*—Net. 

Net Trade Balance. 

Cr. 3,060 
Dr. 1,155 

Dr. 1,762 
Dr. 627 

Cr. 771 

Cr. 2,069 
Dr. 1,782 
Dr. 444 

Interest Account. 

Other“ Invisible” Items—Net. 

Net Trade Balance, Including Visible 
and “Invisible” Items. 

Cr. 1,905 
Cr. 50 

Dr. 2,389 
Cr. 1,750 

Cr. 771 

Dr. 157- 
Cr. 1,800 

Capital Account. 

Final Balance. 

Cr, 1,955 

Dr. 639 

Cr. 771 

Cr. 1,643 



* Specie statistics not published after 1918. The data for the United States have been obtained 
from United States customs reports. There was a notable movement through Canada to the United 
States for account of the United Kingdom during the war. Such figures having no direct bearing on 
the trade between the United States and Canada have not been used in the above table. 

Cr.—in favor of Canada; Dr.—against Canada. 











































179 


The Flow of Capital—Canada 


and general, and of any borrower. 
As has been well said: 

The credit facilities of the country, 
like the bank note issues, follow where the 
need exists and the situation is always 
under control. It is the case of a few men 
working together against many individuals 
working alone. 

The Canadian banks are able to 
extend a line of credit to borrowers 
much larger than would be considered 
safe under any other system of banking. 
The secret lies in the fact that a bor¬ 
rower cannot seek credit indiscrimi¬ 
nately. By custom he must deal with 
one bank, or, at most, in exceptional 
cases, with two or three, and then 
only by common consent; thus the 
lending bank comes to be very closely 
in touch with the business of the bor¬ 
rower. 

The principal circulating medium 
in use, apart from bank credits, is 
bank notes.^ The combination of the 
branch bank system with freedom of 
action in regard to note issues gives 
to Canada a remarkably flexible bank¬ 
ing machinery. A bank receiving 
deposits at Halifax, Montreal or To¬ 
ronto may lend them the following day 
at far western points through its 
branches and by the issue of its own 
notes; the branches redeeming the 
notes, when presented, by drafts upon 
the head offices. Thus it is possible 
to keep the rate of interest in the 
interior and at far western points 
within one-half per cent to one per 
cent of rates prevailing in the large 
cities of the East on the same kind of 
credits. Through the medium of their 
foreign branches the banks are in a 
position to offer their clients excellent 
credit facilities in the United Kingdom 
and in foreign countries. 

In the last twenty years the domestic 

^ Dominion notes are chiefly used as bank 
reserves. 


deposits of Canadian banks have in¬ 
creased about five-fold, the deposits 
in foreign branches nearly ten-fold, 
while the note circulation of the banks 
has more than doubled. 

Table V gives the deposit liability 
and the bank note circulation at the 
close of each calendar year from 1902 
to 1922, inclusive; also the cash re¬ 
serves. The steady growth of the 
deposits is obvious, although the re¬ 
turns for 1921 and 1922 reflect the 
world-wide reaction in trade following 
the war and post-war boom. 

The percentages of reserves in 1921 
and 1922 were more than double those 
carried by the thirty odd thousand 
business banks of the United States, 
the percentages for the Canadian 
banks in 1921 being 14.63 and in 1922, 
14.66; while the percentages for the 
American banks were respectively 6.81 
and 6.92. 

On the other hand the American 
banks had the advantage of the re¬ 
discounting facilities of the Federal 
Reserve Banks, while in Canada there 
is no similar arrangement for the pool¬ 
ing of bank credit. 

The use made of the resources of the 
banks is brought out in an interesting 
manner in Table VI. It will be noted 
that the foreign business of the banks 
makes no direct addition to their 
facilities for lending at home. In fact 
loans abroad at the dates given always 
exceeded deposits in the foreign 
branches. It is also true that the 
banks carry larger balances with 
British and foreign banks than such 
banks carry with them. 

It will be noted that the Canadian 
banks have not hesitated to use a 
substantial part of their assets in the 
purchase of investment securities, al¬ 
though such investments, except at the 
height of the financing of the recent 
war, usually have not been over 10 or 15 
per cent of their total domestic deposits. 



TABLE V 


180 


The Annals of the American Academy 



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The Flow of Capital—Canada 


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§ November 30th. 





















































182 


The Annals of the American Academy 


For the most part the banks have 
kept their investments in liquid form 
as may be seen by a study of the table. 

It is evident, as Canada is so 
markedly an agricultural country, that 
there must be a seasonal flow of bank¬ 
ing capital from east to west at planting 
time and at harvest time, and a reverse 
flow in the intervals. Unfortunately 
the published reports do not give us 
this information. However, a study 
of the monthly trend shows that there 
is usually a tendency for domestic 
loans to reach a maximum in April, 
then to reach a low level during the 
summer, increasing again in the au¬ 
tumn and receding in the winter. 

The National Wealth and Income 

It would be of interest, if the data 
were available, to trace the develop¬ 
ment of the national income, and the 
additions made to the public wealth, 
by savings and by turning the unde¬ 
veloped, inert natural resources of 
the nation into forms serviceable to 
man. In 1919 Mr. Robert H. Coats, 
the Dominion Statistician, computed 
the national wealth of Canada at 
sixteen billion dollars which may be 
compared with an estimate of eleven 
billion dollars made, or, at any rate 
adopted, by Sir Josiah C. Stamp in 
1914 in a paper read before the Royal 
Statistical Society. 

hir. Coats, in January, 1919, esti¬ 
mated the national income to have 
approached in 1911 two billion dollars 
and that the rise in wages and prices 
would probably have brought this 
to $2,400,000,000 in 1918. 

The remarkable increase in the 
yield of the income tax from $9,343,000 
in the year ended March 31, 1919, 


to $20,264,000 in 1919-1920 and to* 
$46,382,000 in 1920-1921 would appear* 
to indicate that when a thorough study I 
of the national income is next made it ■■ 
will be found that it is steadily growing. 1 

Savings deposits on March 31, 1914, j 
were $94,677,000. They reached a ' 
maximum of $100,356,000 on March 
31,1917. Since then they have tended 
to decrease being only $97,737,000 
on March 31, 1921, and $91,943,000 
on March 31, 1922. The deposits 
in loan companies, however, were al¬ 
most double on March 31, 1921 
($15,868,000) what they were on 
March 31, 1914 ($8,104,000), while 
the liabilities to the public of the trust 
companies stood at $87,812,000 on 
March 31, 1921, as against $38,392,- 
000 in 1914. 

As we have already seen, deposits 
in the chartered banks increased from 
$1,279,000,000 in 1914 to $2,385,000,- 
000 in 1921. 

If to these evidences of prosperity 
we add the fact that the people of ! 
Canada loaned their home government 
$2,207,900,000 from 1914 to 1921, we 
cannot escape the conclusion that the I 
wealth of the Canadian people has 1 
markedly increased since the beginning | 
of the war. This increase in wealth | 
would have come anyhow, but un- | 
doubtedly was greatly stimulated by | 
the unusual demand for Canadian | 
products caused by the war. It is | 
true that the two billion dollars which | 
the war cost Canada represents capital 
destroyed but the demand for her , 
products from abroad for war and re- | 
construction has brought about a | 
great development of her flelds, her 
mines, and her factories which must 
have largely made good this loss. 




Canada’s Outstanding Imports • 

By S. H. Logan 

Supervisor, Foreign Department, The Canadian Bank of Commerce, Toronto 


T he extent to which Canada by her 
exports contributes to the trade 
of the world is already well known to 
those who are interested in this country 
either from an economic or from a com¬ 
mercial point of view. During 1922 
the total value of articles exported 
from Canada amounted to $884,000,- 
000, representing for the most part, 
wheat and other grains, live animals, 
meats and dairy products, fish, furs, 
lumber, pulp and paper, and such 
minerals as asbestos, bituminous coal, 
nickel, gold and silver, together with a 
number of sundry manufactured ar¬ 
ticles of which iron and steel products, 
including motor cars, are perhaps the 
most important. 

On the other hand, it is not at first 
sight easy to visualize Canada’s im¬ 
port trade. It is, of course, obvious 
that she must purchase from abroad 
a number of articles which for climatic 
reasons she is unable to produce, or 
for economic reasons she would not 
find it advantageous to produce, but 
the marked development of Canada’s 
industry during the last decade or so 
has to a large extent increased the 
ability of Canadian production to 
meet the demands of domestic con¬ 
sumption and in some cases to trans¬ 
fer a commodity from the import side 
of the trade balance sheet to the export 
side. In the second place, Canada has 
a very important “local” trade with 
the United States, depending largely 
upon industrial conditions in the 
producing centers and upon freight 
rates in the two countries, and the 
trade balance for the items concerned 
may be expected to fluctuate somewhat 
as these factors change. At the same 


time the gross value of Canada’s im¬ 
ports remains at a high figure, amount¬ 
ing to $762,000,000 for the year 1922, 
and the purpose of this article is to 
draw attention to the main items which 
go to make up this figure. 

Iron and Steel 

Iron, steel and other metal products 
constitute the largest group item in the 
list of Canadian imports. In 1922 
their value was $162,000,000, or 21 
per cent of the cost of all goods pur¬ 
chased abroad by Canada during the 
year. There is normally a heavy de¬ 
mand in this country for rolling-mill 
products, for engines and boilers and 
for various kinds of machinery and 
other iron and steel products, and 
Canada has a number of important 
iron, steel and other metal plants, but 
they are at present able to cope with 
only a part of the demand and a large 
part of this has to be met by importa¬ 
tion. Most of the basic material for 
this industry is also purchased abroad. 
Canada is rich in minerals and is well 
known as an exporter of metal ores. 

In the case of iron, however, while 
there are known to be large and im¬ 
portant deposits at various points 
in Canada these, with few exceptions, 
have not yet been developed com¬ 
mercially. Iron ore, therefore, figures 
to a considerable extent in the list 
of Canadian imports, the value of the 
ore imported coming partly from 
Wabana, Belle Isle, Newfoundland, 
in 1922, amounting to $2,000,000. 
Rolling-mill products, consisting of 
band and hoop iron or steel in the 
form of bands, hoops, bars, rails, 
plates and sheets accounted for $30,- 


183 


184 


The Annals of the American Academy 




000,000 in the list of imports in 1922, 
while the value of tubes, pipes and 
fittings contributed another $2,000,000. 
A considerable proportion of this ma¬ 
terial, of course, enters directly into 
the field of production by becoming 
part of the industrial plant and equip¬ 
ment of the country, and to a large 
extent lessens the general demand for 
imported manufactured goods. Simi¬ 
larly the value of engines and boilers 
imported last year amounted to $6,- 
400,000 and that of machinery to 
$22,000,000. About 40 per cent, there¬ 
fore, of all the metal products imported 
is used mainly to increase the produc¬ 
tion of Canada’s industry. The -list 
of iron and steel imports also includes 
wire ($2,800,000), farm implements 
($7,700,000), hardware and cutlery 
($3,000,000), tools ($1,500,000), motor 
trucks ($1,600,000), and passenger 
cars ($12,000,000), but this list of 
consumers’ commodities is more than 
offset by the analogous list of Canadian 
exports, the value of passenger cars 
exported, for instance, being nearly 
twice that of cars imported. 

Among imported articles that con¬ 
sisted wholly or mainly of other metals 
were the following: aluminum (to the 
value of $2,000,000), brass ($4,000,- 
000), watches and clocks ($1,000,000), 
electrical apparatus ($12,000,000). The 
importation of iron and steel products, 
and to a certain extent of those manu¬ 
factured from other metals, is the 
result of the moderate but steady 
demand in Canada for articles re¬ 
quiring a highly specialized plant for 
their manufacture. It is only in a 
country such as the United States, 
where the demand for these special 
articles is sufficiently heavy to call 
for factories equipped with a plant for 
the purpose, that the latter can be 
operated at a cost that will allow the 
finished article to come -on the market 
at a price which the consumer will pay. 


Coal W 

The annual consumption in Canada J 
of coal for all purposes is estimated ■ 
at 30,000,000 tons, a little less than 4 
four tons per capita. Of this amount I 
about 40 per cent is mined in Canada, I 
the remainder being imported from I 
the United States. The Canadian I 
coal fields are located in British Colum- I 
bia and Alberta on the one hand, and I 
in Nova Scotia on the other. Between I 
these two fields there stretches the I 
great industrial heart of Canada, in- i 
eluding the provinces of Ontario and I 
Quebec. This is known as the “acute I 
fuel” area, which, though possessing I 
large resources of hydro-electric power, I 
is dependent on the United States or I 
on other parts of Canada for its coal I 
supply. Intimately connected with 1 
this requirement is the double problem I 
of utilizing to the best advantage the 
output of Eastern and Western Canada. 
This consists in providing at a reasona- i 
ble cost a more extensive market for 
western coal and in reducing the costs 
of production in the east. 

The fact remains, however, that 
central Canada, in consequence of its 
proximity to the Pennsylvania coal 
fields, naturally looks in that direction 
for its supply, and it is likely that ; 
whatever developments may take place 
in the East or the West, coal will con¬ 
tinue to figure largely in our list of 
imports. During 1922 these imports 
amounted to 13,000,000 tons, valued 
at $61,000,000—2,700,000 tons worth 
$24,000,000 being anthracite, and 10,- j 
300,000 tons, worth $37,000,000 being 
bituminous. The year just closed, 
however, is not a good criterion in 
this respect, for the reason that this . 
country was greatly restricted in its 
imported supply. The year 1921 fur¬ 
nishes a better example. In that year 
the importations of anthracite amounted 
to 4,500,000 tons, valued at $40,000,- 




Canada’s Outstanding Imports 


185 


000, and of bituminous to 13,700,000 
tons, valued at $48,000,000. The 
normal volume of coal imported would 
have at present prices, a value of 
approximately $90,000,000. 

Cotton, Wool and Silk 

Textiles form a considerable item 
in Canada’s list of imports. Raw cot¬ 
ton is, of course, necessarily an import 
and must increase with the growth 
of cotton manufactures in this country. 
There are at present important cotton 
mills located in Canada, which produce 
for both domestic and foreign con¬ 
sumption, the total value of the out¬ 
put in 1920 being $92,000,000. Never¬ 
theless the annual value of imported 
cotton goods continues to be high, 
amounting in 1922 to $62,000,000. 

In a country such as Canada, where 
climatic conditions require very heavy 
clothing for the winter, it is only natu¬ 
ral that the consumption of wool and 
of woollen goods should be high. The 
total value of woollen goods manufac¬ 
tured in Canada in 1920 was $28,000,- 
000. Woolgrowing is on the increase 
in Canada and there is a certain volume 
of export trade chiefly of raw wool to 
the United States, but not nearly 
enough domestic wool is produced 
to satisfy the total demand, and the 
total value of importations of this 
commodity and of woollen goods 
amounted in 1922 to $43,000,000, 
of which $4,000,000 represented raw 
wools, $4,500,000 noils and tops, 
$4,000,000 yarns, $1,700,000 carpets 
and rugs, $2,000,000 dress goods to 
be dyed, $2,800,000 tweeds, $11,500,000 
worsteds and coatings and $6,300,000 
wearing apparel. 

Silk imports have grown with the 
prosperity of the people of Canada. 
For the year 1922 the value of silk 
imports was $22,000,000, of which 
only $3,000,000 represented raw ma¬ 
terial. 


Sugar, Fruits and Grain 

Canada is on the whole much more 
an exporter of foodstuffs than an im¬ 
porter, but these, too, figure largely 
in her list of imports. A certain pro¬ 
portion of these are derived from the 
local trade with the United States to 
which reference has been made above, 
but by far the greater part consists 
of articles which for climatic or eco¬ 
nomic reasons Canada does not her¬ 
self produce. Among these the most 
important items are sugar and its 
products, which amounted in value 
in 1922 to $37,500,000, raw sugar ac¬ 
counting for $34,000,000 of this. Sugar 
refining is in fact one of the leading 
industries of Canada. The value of its 
products in 1920 amounted to $132,- 
000,000; this was at a time when sugar 
commanded a very high price and 
when the value of raw sugar imported 
was correspondingly high (about $76,- 
000,000 in 1920), but even taking this 
into account it will be seen that sugar 
occupies an important place in Ca¬ 
nadian industry and trade. It is of 
interest to note that about two-thirds 
of the raw product imported is ex¬ 
ported in the form of refined sugar. 

Fruits of various kinds accounted 
for $27,000,000 in the list of imports 
for 1922. A certain proportion of 
these fruits come from the West 
Indies, but the majority are obtained 
from the United States, chiefly from 
Florida, California and Washington. 

, Grains are the third most important 
food import, the chief items being corn 
($8,000,000 in 1922) and rice ($2,000,- 
000). Corn is grown in Canada to 
but a limited extent. The total value 
of grain and grain products imported 
amounted last year to $14,000,000. 

Chemicals and Oils 

The value of chemicals imported 
in 1922 amounted to $25,000,000. 


186 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Apart from drugs and medicines ($2,- 
500,000) and in a certain measure 
paints and varnishes ($3,500,000), 
most of these chemicals imported by 
Canada enter directly into industry. 
Thus, dyeing and tanning supplies 
account for $4,000,000, fertilizers $2,- 
000,000, sodium compounds $3,000,000. 

In 1920 the total value of chemicals 
imported was $40,000,000 and even in 
the depressed year of 1921 the value 
was $25,000,000. Industry also re¬ 
quires a considerable importation of 
oils, for the use of factories, motor 
cars, light and power, etc., and this 
is an item which is likely to increase 
as time goes on. In 1922 crude oil 
was imported to the value of $25,000,- 
000, refined oil to that of $12,000,000, 
and vegetable oil to that of $6,000,000. 

Miscellaneous 

In addition to the items given in 
detail above, there are, of course, 
many imports which figure substan¬ 


tially in Canada’s trade list. Among 
foodstuffs, for example, are tea ($10,- 
000,000), sundry beverages ($20,000,- 
000), meat products ($9,000,000) and 
vegetables ($5,000,000). Among wood 
products are lumber and timber, 
chiefly first-class hardwoods ($7,600,- 
000), manufactured wood ($7,000,000), 
paper ($8,300,000), books and printed 
matter ($11,000,000). Other items are 
hides and skins ($7,500,000), furs 
($8,000,000), flax, hemp and jute 
($11,000,000), binder twine ($5,000,- 
000), glassware ($7,000,000), rubber 
products ($7,600,000, of which $3,500,- 
000 represents crude rubber) and to¬ 
bacco ($7,000,000). 

Several of these items will perhaps 
vary in value from time to time to a 
greater extent than the primary im¬ 
ports, but it may be expected that as 
prosperity returns and as industry 
grows, the demand for imported goods, 
especially those entering into produc¬ 
tion, will increase rather than diminish. 


Marketing Wheat 

By James Stewart 

Of James Stewart & Co., Ltd. Grain Exporters, and President, Maple Leaf Milling Co., Winnipeg 


W HEAT is Canada’s great staple 
commodity. It bulks larger in 
the trade and commerce of the Do¬ 
minion than any other commodity, 
and in the middle western provinces 
the fortunes of the wheat crop are 
the fortunes of all the people. Not¬ 
withstanding the great importance 
of wheat in the national life of Canada, 
probably no business in the country 
is conducted with so small a measure 
of popular understanding as the busi¬ 
ness of marketing grain. Highly spe¬ 
cialized and technical, the grain trade 
and its place of business—the exchange 
—seem not only to confuse the lay 
mind but also to confound utterly the 
large majority of members of Parlia¬ 
ment who are called upon from time 
to time to enact legislation regulating 
the grain trade. In the course of this 
short article, an attempt will be made 
merely to outline broadly, the out¬ 
standing features of the business of 
marketing Canadian wheat. 

From Planting to Consummation 

To illustrate the wheat marketing 
industry from the time the grain is 
planted until it is actually consumed, 
we shall follow a load of wheat from 
the farm to its ultimate purchaser, 
the consuming public. The average 
sized farm in Western Canada is ap¬ 
proximately 320 acres. Allowing for 
a certain amount of summer fallow 
every year, 150 acres of this is proba¬ 
bly sown to wheat. The wheat sown 
in Western Canada, which produces 
90 per cent of the whole, is chiefly of 
the Red Fife and Marquis varieties. 
The seed is planted as soon after the 
snow clears away as the ground will 


permit—usually between the last ten 
days of April and the first ten days 
of May. This is harvested usually 
from the 10th of August to the 10th 
of September. The average yield va¬ 
ries year by year, but in a new province 
like Saskatchewan, is about 17 or 
18 bushels per acre. In 1915 and in 
1922 the average has been much 
higher—probably by three to five 
bushels per acre. If the weather is 
favorable, the wheat is ready to thresh 
within ten days from the time it is 
cut. If the farmer is situated within 
a radius of four miles of a station where 
there is elevator accommodation, the 
grain is hauled straight from the thresh¬ 
ing machine to the elevator, or immedi¬ 
ately loaded into a car. The farmer 
usually hauls his wheat to the market¬ 
ing point in wagonloads averaging 
60 bushels each. 

On arrival at the village or town 
which is his shipping point, the farmer 
usually finds from two to eight ele¬ 
vators competing for his grain. As 
long as there is any space in the ele¬ 
vator competition continues to be 
very keen. The elevator agent ex¬ 
amines the quality of the wheat and 
a mutual understanding is arrived at 
between the agent and the farmer as 
to the grade. Assuming the grade 
is One Northern, the elevator agent 
knows the value of the wheat, as he is 
kept advised of prevailing prices by 
his head office—usually in Winnipeg— 
from day to day, and sometimes more 
frequently, if there are violent fluctua¬ 
tions in the market. The price agreed 
on is based on the value of wheat in 
store at Fort William minus freight 
and handling charges. The load is 


188 


The Annals of the American Academy 


then dumped into the pit at the ele¬ 
vator and weighed in the presence of 
the owner. Assuming that the fore¬ 
going formalities have been agreed 
upon between the elevator agent and 
the farmer, the agent then prepares 
what is known as a cash ticket, giving 
the farmer’s name, the gross quantity 
of wheat, the grade and dockage and 
the aggregate value of the load. This 
cash ticket is, in effect, a cheque to 
the farmer. For instance, if the net 
load were 60 bushels and the price 
$1 per bushel for that grade, the ticket 
would be for $60. If there is a bank 
in the town, the farmer takes his 
cash ticket and is immediately paid 
its face value, the grain firms usually 
having provided sufficient funds to 
take care of their prospective pur¬ 
chases from day to day. This is the 
simplest and most direct form of 
marketing. 

In Case of Dissatisfaction 

In the event of the farmer not being 
satisfied that he was securing the 
right grade—or for that matter, the 
right price—he can, according to the 
Canada Grain Act, as long as there 
is space in a licensed country elevator, 
demand that the elevator company 
store his grain, giving him the proper 
weights, and, in the event of a difference 
of opinion as to the proper grade only, 
can have a sealed sample agreed upon 
between the farmer and the elevator 
agent sent to the Chief Grain In¬ 
spector at Winnipeg, whose decision 
respecting the grade is final. The 
wheat, in the interval, is kept separate 
by the elevator agent, and the farmer 
instead of receiving a cash ticket issued 
against the wheat in this position, 
gets a storage ticket, showing the 
gross amount. If it is only a difference 
of opinion as to grading, that storage 
ticket is surrendered on receipt of the 
decision as to the grade from the Chief 


Inspector, and a cash ticket is then I 
issued in its place, the amount being* 
determined on the same basis as the * 
simpler form referred to in the previous J 
paragraph. 9 

A third method—and one which is 9 
very largely resorted to by farmers— 1 
is to arrange with an elevator company I 
for space for a carload, which is usually I 
from 1,200 to 1,400 bushels, and per- I 
haps the grade mutually agreed upon. I 
The farmer then receives storage 1 
tickets for each load, the tickets show- I 
ing the net quantity of say One North- I 
ern, until he has a carload, more or 1 
less. At the time the farmer makes I 
the arrangement for the space in the I 
elevator, he usually arranges with the 1 
railway station agent for a car to be I 
ready for the shipment of his grain to 1 
Fort William as early as possible. I 
As soon, therefore, as the car is sup- I 
plied by the railway company—pro- I 
vided the farmer has a carload of I 
wheat in the elevator—shipment is I 
made. When the car is loaded, the I 
farmer surrenders the tickets, and in I 
turn receives the bill of lading, on I 
payment, of course, of the elevator 1 
fees of IJ^ cents per bushel. With this 1 
bill of lading, the farmer may go to the J 
bank and receive a cash advance to 1 
the extent of about 60 per cent of its J 
market value; or, this advance may 1 
be obtained through the elevator I 
company, by similarly surrendering 1 
the bills of lading. Both of these ] 
methods are common. Whether or ] 
not the farmer takes an advance ] 
against his car of wheat, it is then in a j 
position to be sold immediately or | 
held until the farmer chooses to sell. ] 

Who Are the Buyers of 
“Futures” 

With reference to the general process 
of marketing wheat, the question 
naturally arises: Who purchases the 
“futures” for the wheat that is sold in 1 



Marketing Wheat 


189 


the pit at the Grain Exchange from 
day to day? The elevator companies 
receive records every morning from 
their country stations showing the 
aggregate quantities of wheat pur¬ 
chased at country points. They, in 
turn, not desiring to assume any risk 
of the market going up or down, pro¬ 
tect themselves by what is technically 
known as “hedging.” That is, they 
sell wheat for future delivery. For 
example, when deliveries commence 
at country points in September, the 
possibility is that the various com¬ 
panies anticipate being able to make 
delivery at Fort William or Port 
Arthur, at the very latest, during 
October. In order to protect them¬ 
selves from possible decline in the 
market before the end of October, 
these companies sell the October 
option on the very day or the morning 
after the purchase of wheat is made 
at country points. The option price, 
of course, relates to the highest grade 
of Wheat—One Northern, basis in 
store Fort William or Port Arthur. 
The lower grades—^No. 2 and 3—are 
applicable at a discount of three and 
eight cents respectively. The buyers 
of “futures” are grain exporters or 
millers. The exporters have quota¬ 
tions daily from their correspondents 
in the importing countries, indicating 
values there, and prices paid for No. 1, 
No. 2 and No. 3 Northern Wheat 
c. i. f. (cost, insurance, freight) United 
Kingdom or European ports. The 
exporters, if the quotations are in 
line, after allowing for such factors 
as ocean freight, insurance, inland 
transportation by lake or rail or lake 
and rail to the seaboard, together with 
interest, insurance, as well as in some 
cases shrinkage or loss in transit, pur¬ 
chase the October option, or any other 
“future” which best suits the fulfil¬ 
ment of the price indicated or specified 
by the importing traders. The pur¬ 


chase of a “future” may be made by 
a representative of a Canadian miller, 
who may be buying with the prospect 
of selling his product to the Canadian 
consumer either direct, or through the 
baker in the form of bread. 

Wheat Fluctuations 

Wheat being a world commodity, 
and there being so many exporting as 
well as importing countries, it is sub¬ 
ject to fluctuations largely influenced 
by the conditions of crops in the various 
wheat-growing countries. For in¬ 
stance, if the European bread grain 
crops are light, thereby involving a 
larger proportion of importations into 
those countries, and provided the 
exporting or surplus-growing countries 
have only an average crop, the ten¬ 
dency would be for values to stiffen. 
On the other hand, if the European 
importing countries have compara¬ 
tively bountiful crops, and the re¬ 
quirements from the exporting coun¬ 
tries are correspondingly reduced, the 
tendency would be to depress values. 
As wheat crops mature in various 
countries throughout the world prac¬ 
tically every month in the year {see 
table at the end of article), the world’s 
wheat supply is subject to almost daily 
changes in weather conditions—actual 
and imaginary. One night’s frost 
or a few days’ too much rain, or too 
much hot weather, might vary the 
Canadian crop to the extent of 100,- 
000,000 bushels. In Australia, crops 
are subject to drought; in the Argen¬ 
tine, sometimes to drought and at 
other times to frost. The failure of 
the Monsoons in India has a very 
marked effect upon the export grain 
business. Wet weather during the 
harvesting period also has an influence 
on market values. 

Grain dealers have constantly before 
them these varying conditions, and 
consequently a shower of rain, or a 


190 


The Annals of the American Academy 


spell of dry weather has its effect on 
prices and accounts to a large extent 
for the fluctuations in values which 
are daily recorded on the world’s mar¬ 
kets. In addition to this, a shortage 
of ocean tonnage at certain times or 
in certain parts of the world may affect 
transportation, thereby possibly re¬ 
ducing the value of the wheat awaiting 
shipment, as wheat held awaiting ship¬ 
ment in a seaboard elevator incurs 
interest, storage and insurance, and 
often the risk of losing the right 
market. 

Facilities for Exporting 

The Winnipeg grain exporting firms 
usually have offices at either Montreal 
or New York. This, in a measure, 
facilitates business, as ocean tonnage 
can better be secured from seaboard 
ports than from Winnipeg. Even 
ocean tonnage rates fluctuate, and it is 
the exporter who can secure the 
cheapest and most suitable freight to 
comply with the requirements of the 
importing country, who can afford to 
pay the best price for wheat at Ca¬ 
nadian or American seaboard ports. 
Consequently, most of the direct 
cabling with the importing countries 
is done through Montreal or New 
York branches of Canadian firms. 
The Winnipeg offices secure the grain 
in store at Fort William or Port Arthur 
from the elevator and general grain 
gathering agencies, then obtaining 
tonnage by lake or rail or both, and 
forwarding the grain to the seaboard 
port, when the final stages of the busi¬ 
ness are taken over by the seaboard 
offices. 

The principal Canadian exchanges 
are in instant telegraphic communica¬ 
tion with the various grain exchanges 
on the American continent, with the 
result that if conditions are unsatis¬ 
factory in so far as the growing crop 
in Canada is concerned, this is im¬ 


mediately reflected in Minneapolis, 
Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and 
elsewhere. Or, if conditions in the 
great western wheat belts of the United 
States are not satisfactory, or the 
reverse, such influence is practically 
instantly reflected in the quotations 
of values in Winnipeg, so sensitive is 
the market to prevailing economic 
influences. 

Wheat in the Prairie Provinces 

As already mentioned, 90 per cent 
of the wheat produced in Canada 
comes from the three Prairie Prov¬ 
inces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and 
Alberta, and with the exception of a 
very small quantity of winter wheat 
sown in Alberta, the wheat produced 
on the prairies is sown in the spring. 
Spring wheat requires, as a rule, about 
ninety days from the time it is sown, 
before it is ready to harvest. Weather 
conditions may shorten or lengthen 
this period slightly, but generally, 
within three months from the date of 
seeding, it is ready for the binder. 
Very few farmers on the prairies have 
granary accommodation to store their 
wheat, consequently a large percentage 
of it is hauled direct from the threshing 
machine to the primary market. There 
are about 4,500 country elevators 
throughout the three provinces of 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. 
The number of elevators at a station 
ranges from one up to nine, and these 
elevators are located at between 1,600 
and 1,700 points throughout the prai¬ 
ries. There are loading platforms 
provided by the railways, at about 
2,000 points. Providing country ele¬ 
vator facilities constitutes an enter¬ 
prise of large proportions. There are 
some three hundred companies and in¬ 
dividuals financially interested therein, 
to the extent of at least fifty million 
dollars. The loading platforms which 
are provided by the railways will 


Marketing Wheat 


191 


accommodate about 5,000 cars. The 
bulk of the wheat is marketed through 
the country elevators, which have 
a combined capacity of about 140 
million bushels. 

Importance of Transportation 

On arrival at Winnipeg, all cars of 
grain are held for government inspec¬ 
tion. Inspection of wheat alone, dur¬ 
ing the heavy movement in the au¬ 
tumn, runs as high as 2,500 cars per 
day. While the actual market for 
Western Canadian grain is in Winnipeg, 
the point of delivery on contracts— 
and hence the point upon which 
prices are based—is at the head of the 
Lakes—at Fort William and Port 
Arthur. Because of the long four 
hundred mile tract of unproductive 
territory lying between the fertile 
prairies and the head of Lake Superior, 
and because of the natural trading 
instinct which brings the buyer as 
close as possible to the field of the seller, 
we have in Canada a thoroughly 
unique situation—where a large ter¬ 
minal market for wheat is located 
four hundred miles from the elevators 
and warehouses where finally the 
wheat itself must be stored for delivery 
on sales. This distance between Win¬ 
nipeg and Fort William, moreover, 
increases the importance of trans¬ 
portation as a factor in marketing 
Canadian grain. In Chicago, Min¬ 
neapolis, Duluth, and other large 
grain markets in the United States, 
the markets and terminal elevator 
storage facilities are located in the 
same city. Winnipeg is therefore in 
a peculiar position by comparison 
with American markets, which fact 
is emphasized when it is observed that 
Winnipeg is the largest actual grain 
market on the continent. 

When the wheat reaches the head 
of the Lakes it is stored in terminal 
elevators to await shipment eastward. 


One of the functions of the terminal 
elevators is to clean the grain in ac¬ 
cordance with directions of the Govern¬ 
ment Inspection Department. There 
are over thirty terminal elevators at 
Fort William and Port Arthur, with a 
total storage capacity of about 55 
million bushels. This constitutes a 
reservoir much smaller in size than 
that of the country storage space, 
and involves, in order to keep pace with 
receipts from country points, a steady 
flow of shipments eastward down the 
Lakes, to the Georgian Bay ports and 
elsewhere. Navigation is open from 
the 1st of May until the 12th of De¬ 
cember, and as it is cheaper to ship by 
water than all-rail, the bulk of the 
grain has always been shipped over 
the Great Lakes. During the winter 
months when navigation is closed, the 
elevators are used as storage houses 
from which cargoes are moved by all¬ 
rail to the seaboard, constituting a 
much smaller turnover than when the 
grain is pouring through them during 
the navigable months. An analysis 
of shipping records for several years 
past shows that 90 per cent to 95 per 
cent of the wheat shipped from the 
terminals goes forward by boat to the 
Georgian Bay ports or Buffalo, all¬ 
rail shipments ranging only from 5 
per cent to 10 per cent of the wheat 
shipped from the terminals eastward. 

Amount of Wheat Export 

On reaching the seaboard, the grain 
is loaded into ocean bottoms and borne 
to its ultimate market overseas in 
fulfilment of contracts made possibly 
many months before, by cable or 
otherwise. About 70 per cent of the 
wheat produced on the prairies is 
exported as wheat and flour—80 per 
cent of the exportation being wheat, 
and the other 20 per cent, flour. The 
wheat grown in Eastern Canada is 
altogether a soft, winter wheat, in 


192 


The Annals of the American Academy 


contrast with the strong, hard wheat 
of the west. It is used for manufac¬ 
turing purposes in Eastern Canada, 
and is marketed very largely at local 
milling centers; a certain amount of it 
is also handled by grain merchants in 
Toronto and Montreal Boards of 
Trade. But as far as marketing ex¬ 
port wheat is concerned, that is really 
a western problem. The actual export 
figures for wheat and flour combined 
for the past seven years range in terms 
of wheat from 90 million to 290 million 
bushels annually, and average over 
that period, 165 million bushels an¬ 
nually. An analysis of exports by 
shipping routes for the year 1921-22 
shows the following distribution of 
the combined exports of wheat and 
flour: 


To the United States direct. 9.8% 

To the United Kingdom via Ca¬ 
nadian seaports. 21.3% 

To the United Kingdom via Amer¬ 
ican seaports. 47.3% 

To other countries via Canadian 

seaports. 10.3% 

To other countries via American 

seaports. 11.3% 


In the year 1920-21, 32.8 per cent of 
the combined wheat and flour exports 
went direct to the United States; 
39.9 per cent went to the United King¬ 


dom and other countries via United 
States ports, and 28.3 per cent went 
to the United Kingdom and other 

countries via Canadian ports. 

The World’s Wheat Harvest 

January: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Aus¬ 
tralasia. 

February: Upper Egypt and Southern 
India. 

March: Eg^^jt, Tripoli, Morocco and India. 

April: Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Asia 
Minor, Syria, Cyprus and Mexico. 

May: Algeria, Tunis, Central and Southern 
Asia, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. 

June: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, 
Turkey, South of France, South Carolina, 
North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ar¬ 
kansas, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Okla¬ 
homa, Missouri and Kansas. 

July: France, Austria-Hungary, Roumania, 
Bulgaria, Servia, Switzerland, Southern 
Russia, Southern Germany, South of 
England and the Central Wheat States 
of America. 

August: Northern United States, Southern 
Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, 
Germany, Belgium, Holland and Den¬ 
mark. 

September: Sweden, Norway, Siberia, 
Northern Minnesota, North Dakota, 
Canada, Northern Russia. 

October: Sweden, Finland, Northern Rus¬ 
sia, Northern Canada. 

November: Peru and South Africa. 

December: Burmah and Argentine. 







The Canadian Tariff 

By J. A. Stevenson 

Parliamentary Press Gallery, Ottawa 


T he Canadian tariff as a national 
institution has no very ancient his¬ 
tory. It was not established from any 
settled conviction of its virtues on the 
part of either the statesmen or people 
of Canada, but was the fruit of a 
purely opportunist move in the po¬ 
litical game. In 1858 there was held 
in Toronto a Protectionist Convention 
which deputed a committee to make 
representations to Mr. Cayley, the 
Inspector General of Finance, for the 
establishment of higher duties, and in 
the Budget of 1858 their demands were 
partially met. It fell to Sir Alexander 
Galt who added further duties in 1859 
to vindicate against the protests of 
British Chambers of Commerce and 
the Colonial Office the right of Canada 
to set up and maintain her own tariff 
system. His despatch of October 25, 
1859, is a constitutional document of 
the highest importance and its most 
pregnant passage runs as follows: 

Self-government would be utterly 
annihilated if the views of the Imperial 
Government were to be preferred to those 
of the people of Canada. It is therefore 
the duty of the present Government dis¬ 
tinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian 
Legislature to adjust the taxation of the 
people in the way they deem best—even 
if it should happen to meet with the dis¬ 
approval of the Imperial Ministry. Her 
Majesty cannot be advised to disallow 
such acts unless her advisers are pre¬ 
pared to assume the administration of 
the affairs of the Colony irrespective of 
the views of its inhabitants. 

A Definite Protectionist System 

This courageous assertion of fiscal 
freedom was challenged no further by 
the Imperial Government and the 
Canadian Ministry continued to levy 


duties on imports on varying scales, 
but they remained at a very modest 
level and the first steps towards a 
definite protectionist system were not 
taken till 1876 when the Conservative 
Party which had lost office through the 
famous Pacific scandal and were anx¬ 
ious to restore their fortunes gave ear 
to the pleas of the manufacturers. 
When the Liberal Government of Mr. 
Mackenzie refused to increase the 
duties in the Budget of 1876, Sir John 
Macdonald came forward with what 
he termed “The National Policy,” and 
the whole Conservative Party followed 
him in support of a protectionist 
system. There is a tradition at Ottawa 
that the Mackenzie Cabinet were half 
expected to raise the tariff schedules 
and that in that event the Conserva¬ 
tive Party would have emerged as 
virtuous free-traders. Macdonald ad¬ 
mitted that he found it hard to aban¬ 
don his free trade convictions, but the 
circumstances were favorable to pro¬ 
tectionist arguments and he won an 
overwhelming victory in the election of 
1878. 

Although on assuming office he is 
recorded to have greeted a deputation 
of expectant manufacturers with the 
following words, “Now, gentlemen, I 
am the little boy who is up the tree to 
shake down acorns to the hogs,” he 
kept his election pledges and enacted a 
high protectionist tariff in face of the 
criticisms of Blake, Laurier and other 
Liberal leaders. In the Budget de¬ 
bate of 1879 when the new policy was 
introduced, the Liberals advanced 
practically all the arguments which 
they continued to reiterate during 
their long period of opposition. They 
assailed the tariff’s unfairness to the 


14 


193 


194 


The Annals of the American Academy 


laboring classes, its encouragement of 
trusts and combines, the iniquity of the 
coal duties, the injustice to the Mari¬ 
time Provinces, the harm done to 
British commercial interests, and tlie 
fact that the protection actually af¬ 
forded was far in excess of what was 
set out in the tariff schedules. For the 
next eighteen years the Liberal Opposi¬ 
tion directed its main attack upon the 
tariff system and the anti-protection¬ 
ist case came to enjoy wide acceptance. 
The first fruit of the tariff was a rapid 
growth of factory industry in Eastern 
Canada, but in many cases it proved a 
hothouse development and by 1890 the 
country was plunged into hard times. 
The rapid settlement of the western 
prairies did not materialize, immigra¬ 
tion declined, and people crossed the 
border to the United States in thou¬ 
sands. The tariff became unpopular and 
the Liberals were materially assisted to 
win their great victory in 1896 by their 
professed zeal for a free trade policy. 

The British Preference 

But, safely ensconced in oflSce, they 
contented themselves with some special 
reductions and the institution of the 
celebrated British Preference which 
was not so much a mark of loyal de¬ 
votion to Britain as a half-hearted 
attempt to redeem their preelection 
pledges. The latter were very con¬ 
veniently forgotten but at the cost of 
the support of many voters, especially 
in the rural districts who resented the 
capitulation to the manufacturers. 
The Laurier Government, however, 
cheerfully accepted and continued to 
maintain the policy of high protection, 
tempered only by the British Prefer¬ 
ence and fortunately for them the 
great western boom which brought 
general prosperity and rapid develop¬ 
ment began in 1898 and helped to 
banish the tariff issue. As long as 
capital w^as pouring in for railway con¬ 


struction and schemes of expansion, 
and natural resources were being sold 
or mortgaged to the foreign investor, 
the effects of the tariff were scarcely 
perceptible. But when the boom be¬ 
gan to subside and realities had to be 
faced, the farmers of the West, who 
were the chief sufferers from the tariff 
burden, organized a political revolt and 
forced the liaurier Government to 
negotiate the Reciprocity Treaty of 
1911. It was defeated through a 
combination of circumstances and a 
“loyalty campaign” which many of its 
promoters would like to forget, and the 
Conservative Party came into office 
pledged to maintain the policy of high 
protection. The Underwood Tariff 
gave Canada many of the advantages 
of the Reciprocity Treaty, but on the 
other hand the Borden Government 
under the excuse of war necessities im¬ 
posed a special war surtax of per 
cent on the general tariff, and 5 per 
cent on the British preferential rates. 

Rise of Tariff Reform Party 

The war naturally stilled all tariff 
controversies, but soon after it ended 
the fiscal question emerged as an active 
political issue. The Coalition Gov^ern- 
ment, which was then in office, re¬ 
moved the special war taxes, but this 
concession did not placate most of their 
western supporters who broke away 
and proceeded to lay the foundation of 
the organization now known as the 
Progressive Party. This party pro¬ 
mulgated as its program what was 
known as the New National Policy. 
Among other reforms it advocated 
drastic fiscal changes including a wide 
extension of the free list, free trade with 
Great Britain in five years, and a 
general reduction of duties. In 1919 
the Liberal Party also drafted a new 
platform at a National Convention and 
in their anxiety to stave off the advent 
of the third party pledged themselves 


The Canadian Tariff 


195 


to fiscal reforms almost as drastic as 
those contained in the New National 
Policy. But the bait thus held out 
did not attract the insurgent farmers 
who went ahead with the organization 
of the Progressive Party and in their 
campaign of propaganda made the 
evils of the tariff their leading theme. 
The Conservative Party on the other 
hand stood firm by the principle of 
adequate protection. 

The Tariff Controversy 

In the general election of 1921 the 
Conservatives labored manfully to 
convince the electorate that the tariff 
was the supreme issue of the contest 
and that its destruction at the hands 
of the Opposition groups would spell 
economic devastation for the Domin¬ 
ion, but the presence of well-known 
high protectionists in the inmost 
councils of the Liberal Party encour¬ 
aged voters in the industrial centers to 
believe that they could punish the 
Meighen Government for its misdeeds 
without endangering the safety of their 
tariff schedules, and as a result a 
Liberal Government came to oflSce in 
December, 1921. The Progressives 
who made criticism of the tariff an 
integral part of their campaign cap¬ 
tured many seats in Ontario and the 
West, but the election plainly left the 
protectionist interests still in control 
of the situation. It however brought 
once more the tariff controversy into 
the foreground of Canadian politics 
and since Canada has not recovered 
her pre-war standards of economic 
prosperity it continues to occupy 
public attention. 

The Canadian debate about the 
tariff proceeds on very stereotyped 
lines. The manufacturers and the 
supporters of protection lay stress 
upon the value of the home market, 
the need for national self-sufficiency, 
the demand for other careers than 


agriculture can afford and the neces¬ 
sity for maintaining “key” industries. 
They attribute to the kindly shelter of 
the protective tariff the amazing 
growth of great cities like Montreal, 
Toronto and Winnipeg and the steady 
progress of industrial development in 
scores of towns throughout Ontario 
and Quebec. They point out that the 
tariff has compelled many American 
corporations and firms to establish 
branch factories in Canada. This 
practice has increased since the British 
Government gav^e preferential trade 
concessions to the Dominions and 
many American firms now fill their ex¬ 
ports orders at their Canadian plants. 
But on the other hand grave alarm is 
expressed in many quarters at the 
ultimate effects of the steady permea¬ 
tion of Canadian industry by Ameri¬ 
can tariff. 

Criticism 

The chief criticism of Canada’s 
tariff system comes from the farmers’ 
organizations who lose no opportunity 
of protesting against its evil effects 
upon the agricultural industry. They 
go further and claim that it is a dis¬ 
astrous handicap upon all the natural 
industries of Canada. The Dominion, 
they argue, has special capabilities for 
the production of grain, livestock, 
forest products and minerals, but their 
full and profitable utilization has been 
retarded by the effect of tariff duties 
which increase the cost of machinery 
and all implements of production and 
by raising the cost of living force wages 
upward. They admit that through 
the tariff a number of secondary in¬ 
dustries have been successfully estab¬ 
lished in Canada, but they also contend 
that a substantial proportion of them 
have no real place in the economic life 
of the country and are simply kept 
alive at the expense of the natural 
primary industries. In answer to the 


196 


The Annals of the American Academy 


manufacturers’ contentions about the 
value of the home market, the farmers’ 
spokesmen retort that this year less 
than 50 per cent of the farm produce 
of Canada could be consumed at home. 
Large exports markets must be found 
and they ean only be seeured by per¬ 
mitting the liberal ingress of imports. 
The agrarian ease against proteetion can 
best be summed up by two paragraphs 
from a memorial presented in 1920 by 
the Canadian Council of Agriculture 
to the Drayton Tariff Commission at 
Winnipeg. They run as follows: 

We suggest to you that to continue the 
tariff in anything like its present form is 
a direct contradiction of the purpose of 
those who originated the protective 
tariff. Its purpose was to build up and 
establish manufacturing industries. To 
bring this about the consumers were 
asked to endure the higher prices en¬ 
tailed. There is no sense of proportion 
in giving to an industry fully established 
the same assistance which was given to 
it when striving to secure a foothold. 

We suggest to you that profits secured 
by any industry by an unjust law are 
like gambler’s gains—easily diverted to 
improper uses. The revolt of the 
farmers against both traditional political 
parties is due in part to the widely held 
belief that each has been bonused by the 
protected industries and so indirectly 
bribed to uphold protection. 

Adverse Effects upon Settlement 

Critics of the present fiiscal system 
in Canada, however, can find their 
best ammunition in the figures of the 
1921 census. It showed Canada to 
possess a population of 8,769,630, and 
after every allowance has been made 
for the effects of the war this figure is 
far short of the expectations which had 
been formed. If Canada had been 
able to keep all her native-born and 
her immigrants within her bounds her 
population in 1921 should have been as 
follows: 


1911 population. 7,206,643 

Excess of births over deaths. 1,875,000 

Immigrants (1911-1921) circa. 1,900,000 


10,981,643 

Less casualties, direct and indirect, 
of the war. 150,000 


10,831,643 

It is plain, therefore, that there is a 
clear deficiency of two million souls, 
and that there has been an annual 
exodus from Canada on a disconcert¬ 
ing scale. The agricultural population 
of all the eastern provinces has de¬ 
clined and the gains in the west have 
been disappointing. For such a state 
of affairs it is easy to allocate some 
blame to a fiscal system which allows 
protected manufacturers to levy upon 
the pioneer settlers a heavy toll and to 
reduce to a disheartening level the 
financial gains of the agricultural 
community. 


Actual Tariff Increase 


At the general election held in 
December, 1921, 66 members who sup¬ 
ported the tariff platform of the Cana¬ 
dian Council of Agriculture were 
elected to the Federal House. Among 
them there was disposition during the 
first session of a new Parliament to give 
the Liberal Ministry a chance to imple¬ 
ment its fiscal pledges and while the 
meagerness of the tariff reductions 
offered by the Budget was severely 
criticised from the Progressive benches, 
no real insurgency developed. It now 
transpires on the evidence of the trade 
and customs returns that the changes 
inaugurated last May by the Liberal 
Government have actually increased 
the tariff burden to the consumer; a 
number of schedules were pared down, 
but an increment in the rates of the 
sales tax which has protective features 
more than wiped out any benefit ac¬ 
cruing from the reductions offered. 
Under such circumstances the Pro¬ 
gressives are likely to raise sharply the 


I 











The Canadian Tariff 


197 


tariff issue at the approaching session 
of Parliament. 

Appended herewith is a table of the 
average ad valorem rates levied under 
the Canadian Customs Tariff of differ¬ 
ent periods and during the last four 
years. 

Dutiable 

Imports All Imports 
Per Cent Per Cent 


1896. 30.0 19.2 

1906. 27.0 16.5 

1916. 27.2 15.5 

1919 . 21.5 12.3 

1920 . 22 5 14.7 

1921 . 20.6 14.1 

1922 . 24.5 16.2 


Free Trade as Yet Impossible 

But the necessities of the revenue 
situation make complete free trade 
quite out of the question for Canada in 
the immediate future and while tariff 
reform has a larger contingent of active 
champions at Ottawa than ever before, 
they are not likely to prevail against 
the rally in defence of the protective 
system which members of both the 
Liberal and Conservative parties 
would unite to sustain. The Liberal 
Ministry may make some further con¬ 
cessions to placate the anti-tariff forces, 
but the main fabric of the protective 
system will be maintained. It seems 
likely, however, that protection has 
now passed its high-water mark in 
Canada and that the tendency hence¬ 
forth will be towards a lowering of the 
scale of duties rather than their in¬ 
crease. The Prime Minister of Great 
Britain has summoned an economic 
conference of the states of the British 
Commonwealth and doubtless the pos¬ 
sibilities of trade cooperation will be 
thoroughly exploited by the delegates. 
The idea of complete free trade within 
the British Commonwealth has many 
keen advocates, but at present the 
sentiment of local protectionism is too 


strong in the Dominions to permit of 
its general acceptance. 

The truth is that no preferential 
arrangement with the British Common¬ 
wealth can ever compensate Canada 
for comparative exclusion from the 
greatest market in the world which lies 
at her doors. In 1911 confidence in a 
flowing tide of prosperity, which proved 
only temporary and sentimental con¬ 
siderations induced her to reject an 
agreement which would have led to 
close commercial intercourse. Today 
trade relations between the two coun¬ 
tries are not exactly in a happy state, 
but powerful influences on both sides 
of the boundary are anxious for their 
betterment and sooner or later it will 
come. Today the chief obstacles to a 
profitable reciprocity arrangement are 
the manufacturers of Canada and the 
farmers of the middle-western states of 
the Republic. It has been suggested that 
the desire of the latter for the comple¬ 
tion of the St. Lawrence Deep Water¬ 
way might soften their opposition to a 
comprehensive agreement which would 
cover the whole field of the economic 
and transportation interests of the two 
countries which overlap at many points. 

Meanwhile the tariff issue bids fair 
to continue as one of the staple 
ingredients of Canadian politics. A 
few innocent souls cherish the fond 
delusion that it can be entrusted to the 
merciful wisdom of a permanent tariff 
commission and thereby banished per¬ 
manently from the field of public con¬ 
troversy. But the experience of the 
United States and other countries 
which possess impartial tariff com¬ 
missions nullifies such hopes. It is 
vain to expect that the citizens of 
Canada or any other democratic state 
will ever allow an issue which so 
seriously affects the social and eco¬ 
nomic life of the whole community to 
pass from the control of legislatures 
elected by popular vote. 









The British Preference 

By John Lewis 

Editorial Staff, The Globe, Toronto 


T ariff preferences involve a com¬ 
promise between free trade and 
protection. They cannot exist where 
there is absolute free trade, nor where 
protection is rigidly applied for the 
sole benefit of the producers in the 
country under the jurisdiction of the 
tariff-making body. When tariff pref¬ 
erences were given by Great Britain 
in favor of Canadian grain and flour, 
before the repeal of the Corn Laws, 
they were really in the nature of 
mitigations of the Corn Laws, for 
the purpose of giving cheaper food to 
the people of Great Britain, as well 
as out of consideration for colonial 
interests. In this respect the motive 
was not unlike that which led to the 
Canadian preference in favor of British 
products, many years later. 

Feeling of Discontent 

Canada therefore at first benefited 
by the British movement toward free 
trade. But when that movement cul¬ 
minated in the abolition of the Corn 
Laws, all imported grain was treated 
alike and the preference in favor of 
Canada automatically disappeared. 
There was discontent in Canada. 
There was a movement for annexation, 
which came to nothing. There was a 
movement in favor of reciprocity with 
the United States, resulting in the 
treaty of 1854. Efforts to find another 
channel for Canadian trade were seen 
also in Galt’s protective measures of 
1858 and 1859, and in Confederation, 
which united Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick, and afterwards Prince Ed¬ 
ward Island- and the West with old 
Canada. The protective system was 
further extended when the “National 


Policy” was introduced in 1879; the 
purpose being to cultivate internal 
rather than external trade. 

No one then thought of seeking 
relief in a renewal of the tariff prefer¬ 
ences by Great Britain, because free 
trade was regarded as the fixed and 
unchangeable policy of the United 
Kingdom. On the other hand, the 
movement for industrial protection 
in Canada, tending to diminish imports 
from Great Britain as well as from 
foreign countries, did not pass without 
protest. Galt’s tariffs were attacked 
on that ground in Great Britain, and 
he replied with a spirited declaration 
of the fiscal independence of Canada. 
When Tilley introduced the National 
Policy budget of 1879, Mackenzie, 
leader of the Liberal opposition, moved 
an amendment which among other 
things declared that the tariff was 
calculated “to create an antagonism 
between the commercial policy of the 
Empire and Canada that might lead 
to consequences deeply to be deplored.” 
Sir John Macdonald has been repre¬ 
sented as flouting the loyalist objection 
by saying: “So much the worse for 
British connection.” The saying was 
not his, but that of a newspaper zealous 
for protection. 

Reciprocal Preferences 

The situation was unchanged until 
some thirty years ago, when doubts 
began to be cast upon the permanence 
of free trade in Great Britain, and 
proposals were made for a commercial 
union of the British Empire, or a 
system of reciprocal preferences. Sir 
John Macdonald favored the latter 
idea, though the movement made 


198 


The British Preference 


199 


no great headway during his life. 
Other Canadian Conservatives, ob¬ 
serving the course of the controversy 
in Great Britain, took up the idea of 
reciprocal preferences, attracted to it 
partly on the Imperial side, partly 
from a sentimental desire for the re¬ 
vival of protection in Great Britain. 
Passing over some earlier manifesta¬ 
tions, reference may be made to a de¬ 
bate in the Canadian House of Com¬ 
mons in 1892. On April 25th of that 
year, Mr. McNeill, a Conservative 
member, moved 

that if and when the Parliament of Great 
Britain and Ireland admits Canadian 
products to the markets of the United 
Kingdom, upon more favorable terms than 
it accords to the products of foreign coun¬ 
tries, the Parliament of Canada will be 
prepared to accord corresponding ad¬ 
vantages by a substantial reduction in the 
duties it imposes upon British manufac¬ 
tured goods. 

Movement for Tariff Reform 

That the movement for tariff reform 
as it was called had made some progress 
in Great Britain, is shown by the fact 
that Mr. McNeill was able to quote 
from the London Times an article 
favoring a customs union of the 
British Empire and a resolution 
adopted at a Conservative convention 
at Birmingham advocating mutual 
preferences. 

To Mr. McNeill’s resolution an 
amendment was moved by Mr. Louis 
Davies, then a leading member of the 
Liberal opposition, now Sir Louis, 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Canada, in these words: 

Inasmuch as Great Britain admits the 
products of Canada into her ports free of 
duty, this House is of the opinion that the 
present scale of duties exacted on goods 
mainly imported from Great Britain should 
be reduced. 

Sir John Thompson, then Prime 
Minister, in supporting the McNeill 


resolution, said that it would be en¬ 
tirely consistent with our own man¬ 
hood, and the independence of our 
own Parliament, and not a filibustering 
resolution such as the amendment 
which proposed to give away something 
and get nothing in return. The Davies 
amendment was defeated and the 
McNeill resolution carried oh a party 
division. 

This debate is of interest because 
in it issue was definitely joined be¬ 
tween the two parties. The Con¬ 
servatives held steadily to the position 
that there must be reciprocity in 
preferences. This put them at the 
disadvantage of advocating delay until 
Great Britain was ready to abandon 
free trade; while the advantage of the 
policy outlined in the Davies resolution 
was that it allowed Canada to act alone, 
by a mere modification of the pro¬ 
tective tariff. To Conservatives pref¬ 
erential trade appealed as a victory 
for protection in England; to Liberals 
as a move toward freer trade in Can¬ 
ada; while both appealed to Imperial 
sentiment. 

In the following session the matter 
was brought up again by Mr. Dalton 
McCarthy, a leading member of an 
Imperialistic group and a Conservative 
who had broken with his own party 
on the tariff and on other questions. 
On March 14, 1893, he moved a resolu¬ 
tion favoring tariff reform including: 

The substantial reduction of customs 
duties in favor of the United Kingdom 
in whose markets all Canadian products 
are admitted duty free, and of those nations 
which under treaty obligations with Great 
Britain would be entitled to the same 
advantages. 

He asked the House also to declare 
its readiness to make a like reduction 
in favor of such other portions of 
the Empire or such other foreign 
countries, especially the United States 
of America, as are willing to reciprocate 


200 


The Annals of the American Academy 


in matters of trade with Canada on 
fair and equitable terms. This amend¬ 
ment was defeated on a vote which 
was strictly a party one, for although 
Mr. McCarthy had been a Conserva¬ 
tive, his support came entirely from 
Liberals. 

Budget Speech 

« 

A change of government was the 
result of the general election of 1896, 
and on April 22, 1897, the Budget 
speech was made by the Liberal 
Minister of Finance, Hon. William 
S. Fielding. As part of a general 
plan of reduction of taxation it included 
a preferential tariff which was in form 
an offer of favorable tariff treatment 
to any country which would recipro¬ 
cate, but which in substance applied 
mainly to imports from Great Britain. 
The form was adopted because com¬ 
mercial treaties made by Great Britain 
with Germany and Belgium were 
supposed to stand in the way of a 
direct preference. This difficulty was 
afterwards overcome. The preferred 
imports were to be admitted at seven- 
eighths of the general duty until 
July, 1898, and afterwards at three- 
fourths of the general duty. 

In this speech the Minister took 
direct issue with those advocates of 
preferential trade who insisted that 
a Canadian preference to Great Britain 
should be made only on condition that 
Great Britain should give Canada a 
preference on grain, a step which would 
necessitate taxing the foreign import. 
No more unpopular project, he said, 
could be offered to English people 
than a duty of breadstuffs. They 
might in course of time change their 
views and if they could be induced 
to do so by fair argument, it would be a 
good thing for Canada. 

But why should we wait for England to 
take action? England has dealt gener¬ 
ously with us in the past. England has 


given us a larger degree of liberty than is 
possessed by any other country on the face 
of the eartL She has given us liberty to 
tax her wares even when she admits our 
goods free, and we have taxed them to an 
enormous degree. Why should we wait 
for England to do more? Somebody must 
make a move in this matter, and we pro¬ 
pose that Canada shall lead the way. 

Canada Leads Way 

That was the key to the position. 
Somebody must make a move, and 
Canada led the way. The Conserva¬ 
tive plan involv^ed negotiation, the 
action of one country depending on 
the action of another. Mr. Fielding 
substituted for that, independent, un¬ 
conditional action. At once the wheels 
began to move. The British Govern¬ 
ment denounced the treaties with 
Germany and Belgium, which would 
have prevented British colonies from 
giving any tariff preference not ex¬ 
tended to Germany and Belgium. In 
the following year the terms of the 
preferential tariff were altered so as 
to give the preference expressly to 
British imports alone. In 1900 the 
preference was increased from one- 
fourth to one-third of the general 
customs duties. 

Mr. Fielding, as has been seen, did 
not demand a reciprocal preference 
from Great Britain, a demand which 
in 1897 and for some years afterwards 
would have meant asking Great Brit¬ 
ain to depart from its policy of free 
trade, and impose a tax on foreign 
grain. But in 1902 the situation was 
changed. The British Government 
imposed a duty of a shilling a quarter 
(about three cents a bushel) on grain, 
not for protection, but as a revenue 
tax to aid in paying the expenses of 
the South African War. There was 
an opportunity to obtain a preference 
for Canada, not by the imposition of 
a tax upon British imports, but by a 
measure in relief of taxation, similar 


The British Preference 


201 


to the preference given by Canada. 
The Canadian Government accordingly 
asked that Canadian products be 
exempted from this or any future duty, 
and the Imperial Conference of 1902 
passed a resolution in the same sense, 
applying, of course, to all colonies. 
It having been intimated that the 
Canadian preference was not a suffi¬ 
cient consideration for a radical de¬ 
parture from British fiscal policy, the 
Canadian Government declared that 
they would consider the enlargement 
of the Canadian preference if their 
request was granted. 

The Chamberlain Campaign 

It would seem that Mr. Chamber- 
lain, then secretary for the colonies, 
was in favor of this arrangement, 
but that he could not carry his col¬ 
leagues with him. What happened 
was that the shilling duty was retained 
for a short time on all grain, whether 
foreign or colonial, and was then re¬ 
pealed altogether. The Conservative 
Government had insisted, as strongly 
as any Liberal Government could have 
done, upon treating the duty as for 
revenue alone, and not in the slightest 
degree admitting any concession to 
protection or preference. 

Mr. Chamberlain’s resignation from 
the Government in 1903 was due to his 
desire to be left free to go in advance 
of the Government and conduct a 
vigorous campaign for his policy of 
protection and preference. But with 
all his powers of persuasion and per¬ 
sonal influence he failed. The time 
was not auspicious. The tide of 
opinion was running against the Gov¬ 
ernment, not toward the Chamberlain 
idea but toward those of the Liberal 
and Labor Parties, which in 1906 
achieved an overwhelming victory. 
The project made no further progress. 
It is true that as a result of the Great 
War a measure of protection was 


introduced, but it was mainly for 
domestic purposes and was not in the 
full sense a development of Chamber¬ 
lain’s Imperial policy. It did, how¬ 
ever, provide for certain preferences 
upon imports from British countries 
overseas. 

To return to Canada. In 1906 the 
preference was placed upon a new 
basis. Instead of a flat or uniform 
preference of one-third, there was a 
tariff column in which every item was 
set forth with the general duty and 
the preferential duty. In some cases 
the preference was increased, in some 
decreased. On the whole Mr. Fielding 
believed that the tariff was more 
favorable to Great Britain than before. 
The result is that the preferential 
tariff is now set forth in detail, instead 
of being ascertained by deducting 
a uniform percentage from the general 
duties. 

Effect of Preference on British 

Trade 

The effect of the preference on 
British trade with Canada was re¬ 
ferred to by the Canadian Minister 
of Finance in 1906. He said that 
from 1890 to 1896 the imports from 
Great Britain fell from $43,000,000 
to $29,200,000. “At that time the 
preferential tariff came in—the tide 
was turned and the British imports 
into Canada last year amounted to 
$69,000,000.” 

Since that time the volume of Ca¬ 
nadian trade has increased so greatly 
that comparisons would be of little 
value. The preference has not revolu¬ 
tionized trade. Imports from the 
United States still far exceed those from 
Great Britain. In part this is due to 
the fact that the neighboring Republic 
supplies Canada with large quantities 
of raw material for manufacturing 
industries. Geographical proximity 
and similarity of fashions in dress, 


202 


The Annals of the American Academy 


housekeeping, farming, manufacture 
and merchandising, play their part in 
encouraging imports from the United 
States. There has never been any 
inquiry into the bearing of ocean 
freights- upon trade between Great 
Britain and Canada, but obviously 
they must play an important part 
in regulating prices. 

It must be borne in mind also that 
Canada is now a highly industrialized 
country, more so than any other 
British country outside Great Britain. 
This also is to some extent due to 
proximity with the United States, 
which fosters industrial rivalry and 
ambition, as well as facilitating the 
establishment in Canada of branches 
of United States industrial concerns. 

Influence of Canadian Example 

There remains to be considered the 
influence of the Canadian example 
in encouraging a general system of 
tariff preferences throughout the Em¬ 
pire. A measure of protection is now 
a part of the British fiscal system. 
This is not due to any pressure from 
Canada or other overseas British 
countries, but to a sentiment produced 
by the war and German industrial 
rivalry. It was felt to be unsafe to 
allow Great Britain to be dependent, 
as to any important industry, upon 
any country that was hostile or might 
become so. Certain “key industries,” 
deemed to be essential to national 
life, were encouraged by a protective 
tariff. The title “Safeguarding of 
Industries Act” indicates the purpose 
of the legislation. But where such 
duties are imposed, products of British 
countries are admitted at a lower rate. 
In this respect there has been an ad¬ 
vance from the position of some twenty 
years ago, when the British Govern¬ 
ment refused to remit, as to colonial 
imports, the duty of a shilling a quarter 
on grain. The British duties do not 


apply to such staple foods as are pro¬ 
duced in Canada. The sentiment 
against taxing these is still strong. 
The preference is of interest to Cana¬ 
dian manufacturers rather than to 
farmers. It may give an impulse to 
the establishment in Canada of branches 
of American manufacturing concerns 
which are in a position to compete in 
the United Kingdom, and which desire 
the benefit of the preference. 

The Canadian tariff preference is 
granted to a large number of British 
countries besides the United Kingdom, 
and in many of these the Canadian 
example has been followed to a greater 
or less extent, and Canada benefits 
with other British countries. A de¬ 
tailed account of all this legislation 
hardly comes within the scope of this 
article, and it might be misleading, 
as the tariffs are subject to constant 
change through the independent action 
of various legislative bodies. Fiscal 
autonomy, a part of the general right 
of self-government, is not impaired. 
Each community goes its own way, 
but the desire to give and to receive 
benefits through preferential tariffs is 
always present. 

Lack of Uniformity 

Carried out to the utmost, the idea 
of preferential trading would involve 
free trade among British countries, 
and a uniform tariff as against the 
rest of the world—Canada and Aus¬ 
tralia being in the same position in 
the Empire as New York and Texas 
within the United States. That has 
been rejected as impossible, though 
Mr. Chamberlain once seemed to 
contemplate at least a long step in that 
direction. The different parts of the 
Empire are far apart, and they have 
developed along diverse lines. They 
have become accustomed to fiscal 
independence, and each desires to 
shape its own tariff legislation and 



The British Preference 


203 


change it from time to time as the 
needs of revenue or industrial de¬ 
velopment may indicate. 

There could be no agreement as 
to absolute free trade, and no regulation 
of a common tariff by one body, and 
no binding agreement of a far-reaching 
character. There is therefore a lack 
of uniformity, and there is the variety 
and flexibility that characterize British 
institutions all over the Empire. The 
framers of the Canadian preferential 
tariff are entitled to the credit of 


recognizing these essential features of 
the situation. The Liberal Govern¬ 
ment in 1897 set the example of a 
voluntary preference, exacting no con¬ 
ditions and yielding no control; and 
this example has been generally fol¬ 
lowed. It is a svstem which eliminates 
friction, and which facilitates all the 
progress that is possible in a widely 
scattered Empire consisting largely of 
countries enjoying as Canada does 
absolute freedom in regard to taxation 
and the regulation of trade. 


Canada’s Budgetary System 

By B. J. Roberts, B.A. 

Secretary, Department of Finance, Ottawa 


U NDER the Canadian constitu¬ 
tional system, the Executive Gov¬ 
ernment is responsible for the direction 
and coordination of financial policy. 
Parliament is supreme; it grants sup¬ 
ply, authorizes the levying of taxes 
and reviews expenditures. Its pro¬ 
cedure is designed to afford every 
opportunity for free and frequent dis¬ 
cussion of money measures and its 
enactments and machinery provide 
numerous safeguards. Appropriations 
are not made, however, nor are imposts 
levied, except upon the initiative and 
recommendation of the Government. 
This executive control and responsi¬ 
bility, in which the Minister of Finance 
is the central figure, is fundamental 
in the budgetary system of the Do¬ 
minion. 

Early in the Parliamentary session 
the Minister of Finance submits to the 
House of Commons the estimates of 
expenditure for the ensuing financial 
year, which runs from April first. 
The sums required are set out in detail 
under appropriate divisions, grouped 
according to the distinct services 
maintained by the several departments 
of government. 

Capital Expenditures 

A differentiation is made in the 
estimates, and carried into the public 
accounts, between ordinary and capital 
expenditure, the latter including for 
the most part the original cost of 
public buildings, railways, canals, har¬ 
bors and such like. It is not pretended 
that the capital accounts indicate with 
any degree of accuracy the value of 
the physical properties of the Govern¬ 
ment and, as applied to governmental 


expenditures, the distinction may not 
be logically defensible. It is con¬ 
sidered to be useful, however, to 
keep this separate record of outlay 
on these more tangible projects. 

The first step in the compilation of 
the estimates is the submission to the 
Minister of Finance by his colleagues 
in charge of the several departments 
of their estimate of requirements for 
the year, together with explanations 
and relevant statistics, particularly 
in the case of new services or increased 
demands. A compilation is made and 
a tentative total of the year’s require¬ 
ments is struck. The estimates are 
reviewed minutely by the Cabinet as a 
whole, the recommendations of the 
Minister of Finance are considered, 
and such charges are made as public 
policy or the financial necessities of 
the day appear to warrant. As pre¬ 
sented to Parliament, the estimates 
constitute the policy of the Government 
on expenditure. 

In addition to the main or general 
estimates, it is usual for supplementary 
estimates to be submitted. As re¬ 
spects the current year, these would 
represent unforeseen items, and as 
respects the new year, additional 
outlay, notably for public works, which 
the Government was not ready to 
recommend when the main estimates 
were brought down. For 1922-23, 
main estimates totalled $466,983,359 
and supplementary, $13,298,015. 

Importance of Budget Speech 

In his consideration of the estimates 
before submission to Parliament, the 
Minister of Finance has perforce to 
keep before him the question of 


204 


Canada’s Budgetary System 


205 


revenues, in addition to the necessity 
and expediency of the proposed out¬ 
lay. Thus, there is coordination be¬ 
tween expenditure proposals and the 
revenues. Soon after the close of the 
financial year, the Minister makes to 
the House of Commons his annual 
budget speech, which is regarded as 
one of the most important events of the 
session. The tendency has been to 
avoid burdening this statement with 
financial statistics. It is, in essence, 
a bird’s-eye view for Parliament and 
the people of the financial stewardship 
of the Government covering the past 
year, a forecast of the revenues of the 
coming year to meet the proposed ex¬ 
penditures which have already been 
submitted, and the recommendation 
of such changes in taxation as are 
considered advisable. This speech pro¬ 
vokes an extended debate covering all 
aspects of the financial administration 
of the country. 

Of late years, due to the burden im¬ 
posed by participation in the war, 
there has been a continuous addition 
to the revenue-producing measures. 
In 1913 the total budget of the Do¬ 
minion was not more than the sum 
which is now required for interest on 
public debt alone. While the pro¬ 
vincial governments are limited to 
direct taxation within their respective 
territories, there are no constitutional 
limitations placed upon the Dominion 
with respect to the sources from which 
its revenues may be derived. Prior 
to the war, federal taxation consisted 
solely of indirect duties of customs and 
excise. New levies have since been 
added, more than doubling pre-war 
taxation revenue, of which in 1921-22, 
34 per cent was from direct and 66 per 
cent from indirect taxation. The large 
yields were from customs, income and 
sales taxes. With the growth of taxa¬ 
tion, there has lately been a call from 
public bodies for a conference between 


Dominion and provincial authorities, 
with a view to the consideration of 
double taxation, simplification of re¬ 
turns, administration and so forth, but 
no action has yet been taken in this 
direction. 

The Estimates and Parliament 

On presentation to the House, the 
estimates are referred to the Com¬ 
mittee of Supply, composed of the 
whole House sitting as a committee, 
which allows greater freedom of dis¬ 
cussion than when the House is in 
formal session. All appropriations are 
discussed and voted on in this Com¬ 
mittee in the form of resolutions. Each 
item or vote is taken up separately 
and the rule is that members should 
not digress from the particular service 
for which provision is being made. 
It is often arranged by agreement 
between the parties, however, that a 
general discussion of the administration 
and policy of a department should 
take place under a particular item. 
The responsible minister of each de¬ 
partment comes to the Committee pre¬ 
pared to make explanations, provide 
information and, aided by his col¬ 
leagues in the Government and House 
supporters as necessary, to defend the 
proposed expenditures. A member 
may move for the reduction or elimi¬ 
nation of a vote; a motion to in¬ 
crease any appropriation is not in 
order, in view of the provision in 
the British North America Act that 
grants and taxes must be first recom¬ 
mended by message of the Governor 
General or, in effect, by the Govern¬ 
ment. 

The resolutions passed by the Com¬ 
mittee are reported to the House and 
referred to the Committee of Ways and 
Means, also a Committee of the whole 
House, for concurrence, and on report 
again, a Supply Bill, based upon the 
resolutions is introduced and passed 


206 


The Annals of the American Academy 


through the various stages. Usually 
most of the discussion takes place in 
Committee of Supply and the other 
stages are formal. The Supply Bill 
often also provides for the raising of 
moneys by loan, but at times special 
enactments are put through for this 
purpose. 

The role of the Senate is acquiescent 
in money matters. Appropriation bills 
and taxation measures are passed by 
it, but it has long been recognized that 
the granting of supply is the sole right 
of the Commons (the British North 
America Act providing that all such 
measures must first be introduced in 
that Chamber) and that the Senate 
should not throw out or amend the 
principle of such bills, although there 
may be full discussion on the policies 
involved. 

“Vote on Account” 

It occurs often that Parliament has 
not passed the Supply Bill by the time 
the new financial year commences. 
Any unexpended amounts from the 
past year’s appropriations lapse and 
cannot be availed of for expenditures 
relating to the new year. If the 
Government service is to be main¬ 
tained, appropriations must be au¬ 
thorized. It is therefore usual to 
make what is termed a “vote on 
account.” A special Supply Bill is 
enacted granting such amounts as have 
already passed the Committee of 
Supply and a fraction of all remaining 
items, usually one-twelfth or one- 
sixth, a month’s or two months’ supply. 
Before agreeing to this customary 
deviation from the accepted procedure, 
the Opposition extracts from the 
Government a verbal undertaking that, 
notwithstanding the vote on account, 
new and controversial expenditures 
will not be undertaken until Parliament 
has considered and passed on such 
items in detail. 


Taxation Changes 

The resolutions covering taxation 
changes proposed by the Minister of 
Finance are considered in detail by 
the Committee of Ways and Means, 
much as the expenditure resolutions 
are dealt with in Committee of Supply 
and after report the formal enactments 
are put through. Private members 
may move for the diminution of a 
duty, but it is not in order to propose 
a new and distinct tax. In theory, it 
is competent for a member to propose 
the substitution of another tax of 
equal amount for one proposed by 
the Ministry but, in practice, all pro¬ 
posals for the imposition of taxes 
emanate from the Government. 

It is customary for customs and 
excise taxes to become effective on 
the day following their announcement 
in the House by the Minister of 
Finance, although it may be many 
weeks before they actually become 
law. The statute fixes the imposts 
retroactively. The purpose of this is 
to safeguard the rev^enues. While 
the whole of the Government’s taxation 
proposals for the session are usually 
recommended in the budget speech, 
they may be brought down at any 
other time. 

Control and Audit of 
Expenditure 

Having considered the framing of 
the budget and its enactment by 
Parliament, there remains the question 
of administrative control and audit of 
expenditures and revenues, provision 
for which, as well as for general ac¬ 
counting practice, is laid down in 
enactments known as the Consolidated 
Revenue and Audit Act and the De¬ 
partment of Finance and Treasury 
Board Act. The Treasury Board, 
composed of the Minister of Finance 
as Chairman, and five other members 


Canada’s Budgetary System 


207 


of the Ministry, with the Deputy 
Minister of Finance, a permanent 
official as Secretary, besides having 
authority to prescribe the system of 
public accounting, acts as a sub-com¬ 
mittee of the Cabinet Council, in 
matters relating to finance and dis¬ 
bursements. The Department of Fi¬ 
nance has general supervision of finan¬ 
cial matters, keeps the public accounts 
and administers the public debt. The 
other important agency is the Auditor 
General, who is appointed by the 
Government but removable only on 
the Address of Parliament. His func¬ 
tion is to see that moneys are not paid 
except within Parliamentary authority, 
to audit all disbursements and to report 
fully thereon to Parliament. 

All public moneys from whatever 
source derived are paid to the credit 
of the Minister of Finance and Re¬ 
ceiver General, and constitute the 
Consolidated Revenue Fund, from 
which disbursements may be made only 
on the authority of Parliament. No 
cheque may issue from the Department 
of Finance except upon the certificate 
of the Auditor General that there is 
Parliamentary authority for the ex¬ 
penditure. Exception is made in the 
case of Governor General’s warrant 
and where the Auditor’s decision that 
there is no provision by Parliament for 
the expenditure in question has been 
overruled by the Treasury Board upon 
the written opinion of the Minister 
of Justice that there is such authority. 
Where the Auditor objects to pay¬ 
ments on other grounds, the Treasury 
Board is the judge as to the sufficiency 
of the Auditor’s objection and may 
confirm his decision or order the pay¬ 
ment. 

Special Warrants 

The Governor General’s warrant is 
the one exception to the necessity for 
a specific grant by Parliament for 


every expenditure. The Audit Act 
provides that the Government may 
issue such warrants, where the need 
is urgent and the Minister of Finance 
certifies that there is no Parliamentary 
vote applicable. The Auditor General 
is required to submit to Parliament, in 
the early days of the session, a state¬ 
ment of all overrulings of his decisions 
and of payments against appropriations 
established by these special warrants. 
The latter are carefully scrutinized 
by Parliament with a view to assuring 
itself that the trust which has been 
reposed in the Government, for emer¬ 
gency expenditure, has not been vio¬ 
lated. 

In ordinary circumstances, the De¬ 
partment of Finance does not exercise 
that degree of supervision of depart¬ 
mental expenditures that is found in 
the British Treasury under a similar 
budgetary system. At times, how¬ 
ever, such as when there is an unex¬ 
pected falling-off in revenues, the 
Minister of Finance is required to call 
upon his colleagues for curtailment of 
their respective departmental expendi¬ 
ture programs and to impose restric¬ 
tions on sums to be drawn from the 
treasury against appropriations. 

There remains to be considered the 
functions of the Public Accounts Com¬ 
mittee. This is a large select commit¬ 
tee of the House of Commons, with 
supporters of the Government invari¬ 
ably in the majority. Its function is 
to examine and enquire into the ex¬ 
penditures of the past year, and the 
conduct of the public accounts, gener¬ 
ally, as revealed by the printed Public 
Accounts and the Auditor General’s 
Report which are compiled and pre¬ 
sented to Parliament by its order. 
It has no executive authority; its 
function is to enquire and to report 
its findings to the House. It has at its 
disposal all the means to enable it to 
investigate the year’s business without 




The Annals of the American Academy 


208 

reserve. In view of its composition, 
the Committee’s enquiries are often 
criticized on the ground of being dic¬ 
tated by partisan motives. However 
this may be, it cannot but be regarded 
as having a very salutary influence 
on the conduct of the country’s affairs. 
In addition to serving as a basis for this 
Committee’s work, the Public Ac¬ 
counts and Auditor General’s reports 
are available and extensively used 
by the members when the estimates 
are under discussion. 

The United States and Canada 

The fundamental differences be¬ 
tween the Canadian and the United 
States budgetary systems are those 
which result inherently from the differ¬ 
ent constitutional relationship of the 
executive to the legislature in one 
country, as compared with the other. 
In Canada the budget, on the ex¬ 
penditure as well as the revenue side, 
while conforming in general to the 
policy of the majority of the elected 
representatives of the people, is fixed 
in substance and in detail by the 


executive. Additions thereto cannot 
be made without its consent. In the 
United States, the President submits 
to Congress—as the recommendations 
of the Executive—the combined esti¬ 
mates of expenditures, compiled by 
the Director of the Budget, and his 
own views on taxation and revenue 
matters, but neither in theory nor in 
practice is Congress confined to these 
recommendations. Under the Cana¬ 
dian system, detailed consideration 
of both expenditure and revenue pro¬ 
posals, so far as the legislature is 
concerned, takes place in the House 
of Commons sitting as a whole in 
committee. In Congress both Houses 
function, each with its various com¬ 
mittees on appropriations and its 
Committee on Ways and Means. 
Under the Canadian system the initia¬ 
tive is yielded to the executive, assuring 
a coordinated budget. At the same 
time provision has been made for a 
well ordered system of review and 
audit calculated to afford full pub¬ 
licity and to safeguard the public 
treasury. 



The War Finance of Canada* 

By Right Hon. Sir Thomas White, K.C.M.G. 
Federal Minister of Finance, 1911-19, Toronto 


T he Finance Act of 1914 is one of 
the most important measures that 
was ever placed upon the statute 
books of Canada, one of the most use¬ 
ful, not only during the war, but look¬ 
ing also to the future,—an Act which 
gives much greater stability to our 
banking system than it formerly 
possessed. 

Before the war the banks had to 
meet, if required, all their obligations 
in legal tender. A depositor, for 
instance, might go to a bank and say: 
‘‘I want to draw a certain amount, 
and I will take it in Dominion notes, 
or gold.” The banks therefore made 
it a point to keep themselves very 
strong in reserves. Those reserves 
would be gold. Dominion notes, and 
call loans in New York, because call 
loans in New York can be called, and 
their amount is thus the equivalent 
of gold. So the banks had to keep 
themselves strong in reserves, because 
a period of money stringency might 
occur and they might be called upon 
for legal tender to a very large amount 
indeed. Now those periods of finan¬ 
cial stringency did come along. The 
memory of some will probably go back 
to 1907 when there was a money crisis 
in the United States and gold payments 
were suspended. That was a period 
of panic in the States and a period 
of financial stringency in Canada. 
Money was tight. In the old days 
when money was tight the banks 
would say, 

^ Note: This article has been reproduced by 
Sir Thomas White’s permission from an address 
which he gave, January 22, 1922, to the Toronto 
Bankers’ Educational Association.— Ed. 


We have the crops to move, and there is 
a critical situation existing in the United 
States, or elsewhere in the world, we have 
to be careful about our reserves, more than 
that we have to increase our reserves. 

The result was they were bound to 
curtail credits to commercial and in¬ 
dustrial concerns and the agricultural 
community,—they could not help it,— 
and that did a great deal to accentuate 
the stringency. They had to build 
up stronger reserves to meet anything 
that might arise out of this critical 
situation, as well as take care of such 
demands as, say, the crop movement 
might make upon them. In other 
words, the banking system prior to 
the Finance Act of 1914 lacked flex¬ 
ibility, though when I say that, it was 
infinitely more flexible than the bank¬ 
ing system of the United States at that 
time. 

Measures Which Allayed Panic 

When the war broke out we had a 
panic here in Canada. There was a 
panic everywhere. On the continent 
and in Great Britain all the bourses 
and stock exchanges closed their doors. 
New York had to follow. They 
thought they could keep open but soon 
found they could not. There was a 
perfect flood of security-selling all 
over the world. At that time there 
was a demand in Canada for gold and 
people got a little panicky. So on a 
historic day in Ottawa I met with the 
members of the Canadian Bankers’ 
Association and we adopted measures 
which immediately allayed the panic 
and which formed the foundation of 
the Finance Act of 1914, an Act which 


15 


209 


210 


The Annals of the American Academy 


should have been on our statute books 
many years before to meet just such a 
contingency as that. \Miat was done 
was this: ,We suspended the payment 
of gold, we permitted the banks to 
avail themselves of the privilege of the 
excess circulation prior to August 31st; 
we permitted them to pay their credi¬ 
tors in their own notes, and last, but 
certainly not least, we created a re¬ 
discount department or a loaning 
department in the Department of 
Finance. We said to the banks: 

The Dominion Government will loan you 
in Dominion notes, which are legal tender, 
twenty-five, fifty million dollars, we put no 
limit, if you need it. You probably will not, 
but if you do, we wiU loan without limit on 
securities approved by the Minister. You 
bring in high-class securities, or commodity 
bills, because they represent their fuU value 
in goods, and we will lend to you at 5 per 
cent Dominion notes that will make you 
liquid and you need not worry about your 
reserves. There was no more panic after 
that announcement was made. 

From that day to this there has been 
the utmost confidence in the Canadian 
banking situation, no sign of panic. 
That gave flexibility to our banking 
system, made our bankers confident 
that they could meet any situation 
that could arise, and, of course, they 
could give the public very much more 
extensive credits than they otherwise 
would have got, because the bankers 
knew that if a period of stringency 
should come, they could go to the 
Finance Department and get Dominion 
notes upon the deposit or pledge of 
securities satisfactory to the Minister 
of Finance. In August, 1914, I intro¬ 
duced into the House of Commons the 
measure which embodied all these 
provisions, that is the Finance Act of 
1914. That Act is available, and may 
be brought into operation by the Gov¬ 
ernment by Order-in-Council in case 
of war, invasion or panic, real or 


apprehended. Away back in 1907 
when the panic was on in the United 
States, the Government of the day 
in Canada loaned Dominion notes to 
the banks as needed, upon securities, 
but was without any legislative au¬ 
thority for doing so. It was the right 
thing to do, but no permanent measure 
followed. But now under the Finance 
Act of 1914 the provisions I have men¬ 
tioned are in effect. We are not 
through the after-war period yet, but 
they are in effect until September, 1923, 
and I have no doubt that if at that 
time it is found desirable to extend 
them, they will be extended. Whether 
they will need to be extended will 
depend principally upon the standing 
of our exchange as compared with 
that of the United States. But the 
flexibility given to our banking system 
by that Act has been of incalculable 
value to the agricultural, commercial 
and industrial interests of Canada, 
apart from war conditions. Much 
good legislation in the world arose 
out of war conditions, because weak¬ 
nesses were disclosed which had not 
been discovered before. 

Dominion Notes 

It is necessary now to say something 
about Dominion notes. As is well 
known, the banks issue their notes to 
the authorized amounts if they so 
require, and in addition to that there 
is a currency in Canada known as 
Dominion notes. I shall deal with 
them, first, under the legislation that 
was in effect before the war, then as to 
what was done in the war period, and 
the situation as it is now, treating 
the subject very briefly. 

Before the war the Dominion Gov¬ 
ernment issued its notes against gold. 
In August, 1914, it had out $112,000,- 
000. The Dominion Government may 
issue its notes in denominations of 
$1, $2, $4, $5, $100, $500, and any 


The War Finance of Canada 


211 


multiples of $100 it chooses. The 
banks are not permitted to issue a note 
for less than $5. Why? Well, it is 
an advantage to the Government to 
have out what it called the fiduciary 
note circulation. There is always a 
great deal of money in the form of notes 
in the pockets of the people, used for 
making change and for till-money. 
Before the war it used to be estimated 
that there were twenty-five or thirty 
million dollars out in the form of Do¬ 
minion notes in denominations under 
$5 in the hands of the public. That 
money, in the hands of a couple of 
million families, would never be pre¬ 
sented for redemption, so that it was 
in the nature of a free loan, not like 
a bond issue on which you pay 5 per 
cent. It is free money if it is not 
covered by gold. If covered by gold, 
of course, the Dominion would be 
losing its interest because it would 
have had to pay for the gold. Before 
the war the law was this: Take the 
first $30,000,000 of Dominion note 
circulation, only 25 per cent had to be 
covered by gold. This $22,500,000, 
which was called fiduciary circulation 
(circulation not covered by gold or 
any other security) was in the hands 
of the people and not likely to come 
in. After $3,000,000, the Dominion 
notes were secured dollar for dollar by 
gold. Therefore in getting back to the 
$112,000,000 of Dominion notes which 
were outstanding before the war, the 
chartered Banks of Canada held $90,- 
000,000 of that, $22,000,000 of which 
was in the hands of the general public; 
and the Dominion Government held 
against that $91,000,000 in gold. Thus 
there was $1,000,000 in gold more than 
was required, having regard to the 
fiduciary circulation. We were truly 
on a gold basis. No country was on a 
better basis—could not have been. 
Then came the war, and the Finance 
Act of 1914 was enacted. 


Issuance of Notes 

In the summer of 1917 at the express 
request of the British Government we 
gave them a credit of $50,000,000 in 
Dominion notes for the purchase of 
cheese, butter, meats, oats and other 
products of Canada. Those products 
were required to feed the civilian popu¬ 
lation in Britain and the armies in 
the field. Canada had to have a 
market for her products. Great Brit¬ 
ain needed the products but could not 
pay for them in pounds sterling, as they 
had to be paid for in Canadian money 
here. How was Great Britain to 
get that money here? It was before 
our Victory loans, before we had been 
asked for any extensive credits, and 
this $50,000,000 was absolutely re¬ 
quired. We were borrowing from 
Great Britain very large sums to pay 
our soldiers, buy munitions, etc., so 
we made the issue of notes. 

In the fall of 1917, as a result of the 
requirements of Great Britain for large 
sums here to pay for our products, 
we improvised the first Victory loan, 
the purpose of which was not only to 
provide for our military expenditure 
in Canada, but also and principally 
to give Great Britain credit here to 
buy our commodities which they 
desired to have and we desired to 
sell. But in the meantime we had 
to turn the Finance Department into 
a bank for the purpose of financing 
the Imperial Government in carrying 
out the purchase of our commodities. 
Do not forget that on the other side 
the Imperial Treasury had turned itself 
into a bank to finance our heavy ex¬ 
penses in Great Britain and on the 
continent. I received a telegram from 
Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Bonar Law 
pointing out the situation and asking 
us to meet it if necessary by an issue 
of currency. For the $50,000,000 for 
which they asked, the British Govern- 



212 


The Annals of the American Academy 


ment deposited high-class securities 
of a value of $60,000,000 in London to 
the credit of the Dominion Government 
as cover. In addition we issued some 
$26,000,000 of notes in aid of the rail¬ 
way situation against Dominion guar¬ 
anteed bonds. 

But the largest amount of notes out 
during the war represented loans made 
to the banks upon high class securities 
under the Finance Act of 1914. At 
the present time the result of all this is 
that there are $287,000,000 of Domin¬ 
ion notes outstanding, secured as to 
$85,000,000 with gold, and the balance 
by high-class securities, which will 
gradually come down. On the whole, 
I think, we may congratulate ourselves 
on having an extraordinarily good 
financial situation in Canada. 

System of Borrowing 

Now a word as to borrowings: Before 
the war all the borrowing of the Do¬ 
minion Government was done in 
London. Why.^^ Because we could 
borrow there more cheaply than in any 
other place, much more cheaply than 
in the United States, and much more 
cheaply than in Canada. Besides 
which, in Canada, the savings of the 
people in the banks were required for 
the ordinary commercial business of the 
country. So the Dominion Govern¬ 
ment, since Confederation and prior 
to that, when it required loans for 
capital expenditures, public works, 
etc., borrowed in London. The method 
was very simple. The financial agent 
of the Government in London was the 
Bank of Montreal. The Government 
would cable the bank that it desired 
to have a loan issued at a proper time, 
having regard to market conditions. 
The Government had its broker there 
and the matter was taken up with him. 
The Dominion Government securities 
are what are known as trustee in¬ 
vestments in London. A trustee se¬ 


curity is a security in which a trustee 
may invest trust funds, and there is an 
enormous amount of trust money 
in Great Britain, whereas the class of 
trustee investments is limited. A trus¬ 
tee cannot invest in stocks or industrial 
bonds, only in the bonds of municipali¬ 
ties and governments, first mortgages, 
etc. 

Dominion Government securities 
were on that list in England, and 
the result was that they were al¬ 
ways in demand by trustees for in¬ 
vestments. As the range of availa¬ 
ble securities was small, they would 
always sell at a low interest yield, in 
other words a high price. The Do¬ 
minion Government’s securities would 
sell on a 3 per cent, 3§ per cent, 
getting up to 4 per cent basis just 
prior to the war, whereas in the ordi¬ 
nary case it would be 5 per cent or 6 
per cent on a good bond. If market 
conditions were not right just when 
the money was needed, the Govern¬ 
ment would put out Treasury Bills, 
five-, ten-, fifteen million dollars of 
three- or six-months Treasury Bills, 
which were marketed at a certain rate 
of interest, 4i per cent, 4J per cent,— 
whatever the market would demand 
at the time,—to tide us over a period 
of tight money. At the end of that 
time you would consider the situation. 
If money was still tight you would 
put out a new Treasury Bill issue, 
but assuming it was fair financial 
weather, or that at the time you first 
desired to raise the money it was fair 
financial weather, then you would have 
your loan underwritten. The broker 
would take it up and underwrite it 
with those who underwrite such issues 
—well-known houses in England made 
a specialty of doing that. Prices were 
fixed amazingly close as they had 
every object in maintaining the mar¬ 
ket, not driving for a high price but 
exactly hitting the proper price at 






The War Finance of Canada 


213 


the time, because they were inter¬ 
ested in other issues as well as in ours. 
Even if the loan would be only par¬ 
tially subscribed, it would not be called 
a failure. The underwriters would 
take the balance unsubscribed and 
gradually put it on the market as it 
could take it, taking their little loss, 
if necessary. That was their business 
—underwriting. 

So that is how the Dominion Gov¬ 
ernment financing was done in England 
before the war. 

Borrowing in London and New 
York 

When the war broke out we went 
to New York in 1915 for $45,000,000. 
Next year, $75,000,000; then $100,000,- 
000, which was afterwards paid off. 
Borrowing in New York is different 
from borrowing in London. The Lon¬ 
don market is a world market. For 
generations, yes for centuries, the 
investor in Great Britain has been 
investing in securities all over the 
world. Issues of almost every gov¬ 
ernment in the world have been made 
in London, and of enterprises carrying 
on business at the ends of the earth, 
and of municipalities on the continent 
as well as in England. So it is a 
wonderful world market. They know 
the value of securities better than any 
other people in the world. In the 
United States, before the war and, 
to a certain extent, it is true yet, the 
investing public were not world in¬ 
vestors. They could find all the 
investment opportunities they needed 
in their own country and they were 
very slow to buy outside securities. 
Of course, Canada was a neighbor. 
They knew our conditions and were 
glad to take our securities and they 
took them in very large amounts— 
Dominion, provincial, municipal, and 
of many of our industries. But the 
mode of floating a loan there is a little 


different from that in London. In 
New York a syndicate is formed and 
a price fixed by negotiation. They 
try to make a price that will make the . 
loan a success; that is, they want it 
over-subscribed every time or they do 
not regard it as a success. They fix 
a price at which they think the public 
will take up the whole issue and clear 
the underwriters. The syndicate is 
formed, they negotiate and buy the 
entire amount, underwrite it, then 
offer it to the public for subscription; 
the public subscribe and the money 
comes in, they pay you the cash and 
the transaction is complete. 

Victory Loans 

Now we come to our own situation 
in Canada and the Victory loans. 
We had to feel our way in these loans. 
Since the war people have been heard 
to say that we could have floated a 
$500,000,000 loan in Canada before 
the war. That is not so. The money 
for the Victory loans was made as 
the conflict went along. There was 
increased production, higher prices, 
large sums of money coming to the 
people who produced and sold supplies 
and commodities. Then we appealed 
to the public who had this money to 
take the Victory loans. The money 
raised by the loans financed further 
production and sales. This made a 
very fluid situation. The people of 
Canada were able at the end of the 
war to say: ‘‘We do not owe anything 
in Europe, we do not owe anything 
to the British Government.” On the 
contrary the British Government owed 
the banks of Canada $150,000,000, 
and the Dominion Government $200,- 
000,000 at the end of the war. 

I discovered when I was Minister 
of Finance that the Canadian banking 
system is the most perfect instrument 
that a Minister of Finance could have 
at his hand in floating a national loan. 


214 


The Annals of the American Academy 


When Mr. McAdoo had his task of 
raising Liberty loans, and it was a 
heavy one, in order to get team-play 
on the part of the banks, how many 
did he have to deal with? Thirty or 
forty thousand individual banks, 
through the Federal Reserve Banks. 
What had I to do? Just call up on 
the telephone the President of the 
Canadian Bankers’ Association: “I 
want all the branch banks of Canada 
notified to do a certain thing”—It 
was done. During the war I used to 
ask the general managers of the banks, 
the members of the Association, to 
come to Ottawa frequently. At first 
I fancy they came thinking I wanted 
to borrow large sums of money from 
them which I might not pay back 
immediately, but I had been in the 
financial business myself and I knew 
that at the start at all events you 
should keep your credit good by re¬ 
paying promptly. I do not think 
there was a more surprised lot of men 
than they when I paid them back 
on the nail the first lot of Treasury 
Bills they took from me. Some of 
them told me in confidence afterwards 
that they really did not think I in¬ 
tended to pay them back until after 
the war. I paid them back, and so 
I was able to borrow the amount 
again before very long. My credit was 
good. 

Value of Conferences 

The Minister of Finance is supposed 
to have a special interest in the financial 
welfare of the country. It is to his 
department that all financial institu¬ 
tions, such as life insurance companies, 
trust and loan companies as well as 
the banks, report, that is those that 
exist under Dominion legislation. A 
Minister of Finance usually keeps in 
touch with the financial community. 
He may give them advice or seek their 
advice in financial emergencies. That 


is a very valuable relationship, because , 
questions arise from time to time of ,, 
very great moment in the financial j 
world—stringencies, crises, panics may j 
occur. The relationship between the 
bankers and the Minister should be ; 
one of the greatest confidence. I am 
a great believer in conferences. If 
you get men together and thresh a 
thing out—get all their yiews—-you I 
are going to come to a pretty correct 
conclusion. Get a number of men to- I 
gether around a table; they give I 
you their views and you give them 
yours; you check one another up, j 
and the result is pretty sound. I have 
never seen it fail. Very wise counsel 
can be had from men with the ex¬ 
perience of the general managers of 
the banks of Canada, and sometimes 
the Minister is able to counsel them 
wisely. 

After the War 

I made it my business to advise the 
banks of Canada, and the industrial 
institutions and business houses of 
Canada, to conserve their resources, 
make themselves strong, not pay out 
too large dividends to shareholders 
because they would perhaps spend it 
foolishly, some of them at least. I 
was always apprehensive of the period 
after the war. It has come along 
very much better than I thought it 
would, but I think only because we 
had taken precautionary measures to 
meet the situation, and had made our¬ 
selves strong in preparation to with¬ 
stand the strain. Therefore all through 
the war, in addition to carrying on 
the other duties, I went outside my 
statutory duty to advise bankers, 
industrial companies and business men 
generally to conserve their resources 
as much as possible, and strengthen 
their reserves, because I was always 
afraid of an outbreak of speculation 
and then of falling prices after the 





The War Finance of Canada 


215 


war; in other words, afraid of just 
what has happened. By taking meas¬ 
ures to check and counteract it, by 
giving advice, and above all by keeping 
our debt funded, (not having un¬ 
funded borrowings of any amount 
but having a large amount of money 
owing to us by Great Britain) our 
banking position was relatively the 
strongest in the world after the war. 
In the United States the banks had 
to take $5,000,000,000 of Liberty 
bonds, because the bond issues were 
put out at too low a rate of interest. 


Great Britain had outstanding $5,000,- 
000,000 of floating securities. That 
amount has to come out of the money 
which should be available for the com¬ 
mercial and industrial needs of the 
country. But we funded all our loans, 
put them out spread over a long period 
so that there was no very large floating 
debt of short date maturities. All the 
surplus money of the banks was availa¬ 
ble for the needs of agriculture, in¬ 
dustry and commerce. That is one of 
the reasons why we have come along 
so well during this difficult period. 


Dominion and Provincial Taxation in Canada 

By H. R. Kemp, M.A. 

Department of Political Economy, University of Toronto 


T he British North America Act 
allows the Dominion Government 
to raise money “by any mode or 
system of taxation.” The provinces 
are permitted to levy “direct taxation 
within the province in order to the 
raising of a revenue for provincial 
purposes” and to enact “shop, saloon, 
tavern, auctioneer, and other licenses 
in order to the raising of a revenue for 
provincial, local, or municipal pur¬ 
poses.” Before the war, the Dominion 
Government levied few taxes apart 
from customs and excise duties and 
head tax on Chinese immigrants. The 
provinces derived their chief revenue, 
as they still do, from Dominion sub¬ 
sidies, the yield from forests, fisheries, 
and mineral deposits, succession du¬ 
ties, taxes on corporations, and license 
fees. 

Since the war, public expenditures 
in Canada have increased as they have 
in other countries. In 1913 the ordi¬ 
nary expenditures of the Dominion 
Government were $14.89 per inhabit¬ 
ant; those of the provincial govern¬ 
ments averaged $7.08; while both to¬ 
gether amounted to $20.22.^ In 1920, 
the latest year for which full compara¬ 
tive figures can be given, the ordinary 
expenditures of the Dominion Govern¬ 
ment had risen to $35.20, those of the 
provinces to $10.24, and both together 
to $44.11. In 1922^ the ordinary ex¬ 
penditures of the Dominion Govern- 

^ Subsidies granted to the provinces by the 
Dominion amounted on the average to $1.75 per 
capita. This sum has been deducted from the 
total to avoid counting it twice. 

* Fiscal years for the Dominion and the prov¬ 
inces end at a number of different dates. 


ment had risen to $38.76 per capita, 
two and a half times as much as in 
1913. The causes of this increase are 
too well known to require comment at 
length. Between 1913 and 1920 the 
net debt of the Dominion rose from 
$41.76 to $260.56 per capita, chiefly as 
a result of the war, and interest 
charges increased from $1.67 to $12.47. 
The level of general prices also rose and 
carried many of the expenditures of 
government up with it. The wholesale 
price level of 1920 was two and a half 
times as high as that of 1913, and even 
in December, 1922, it was 65 per cent 
above the 1913 level. In addition to 
the after-costs of war, both Dominion 
and provincial governments have as¬ 
sumed new burdens. All have had to 
seek new sources of revenue. 

The Dominion Government has 
profited by increases in the yield of 
customs and excise duties, but to ex¬ 
pand its revenue it has chiefly relied 
upon the imposition of the income tax 
(introduced 1917), the business profits 
war tax (which yielded $151,734,248 
between 1917 and 1921, when it was 
dropped), various stamp taxes, taxes 
on banks, loan and trust companies, 
and insurance companies, and finally a 
sales tax which made its first appear¬ 
ance in 1920 and which has been in¬ 
creased several times since. The 
relative yield of these taxes, and the 
extent of their growth, may be seen 
from the following table. 

So much is being raised by the new 
taxes that customs and excise duties, 
which formerly constituted the bulk of 
the revenue, now supply less than half 
of it. But in spite of these efforts, the 


216 


Dominion and Provincial Taxation in Canada 


217 


Yield of the Chief Dominion Taxes 


(In thousands of dollars) 


Name of Tax 

1917 

1918 

1919 

1920 

1921 

1922 

Customs. 

134,044 

144,173 

147,173 

168,797 

163,267 

105,687 

Excise. 

24,412 

27,168 

30,342 

42,698 

37,118 

36,755 

Other taxes, “ordinary” , . 


209 

2,027 

132 

240 

395 

War Taxes 







Income tax. 



9,350 

20,264 

46 382 

• 78 393 

Business profits. 

12,507 

21,271 

32,970 

44,145 

40,841 

22,680 

Sales tax. 





27,910 

61,519* 

Banks. 

1,114 

1,116 

1,100 

1,170 

1,258 

Other war taxes. 

2,681 

2,993 

12,758 

16,501 

51,994 


Total yield Dominion taxes 

174,845 

196,930 

235,715 

293,707 

369,011 



* Expected yield 1923, $90,000,000. 


national debt has increased each year 
since the war. Even in 1922 it in¬ 
creased by more than 81 million dollars 
—nearly ten dollars for each inhabit¬ 
ant. Further efforts to increase the 
revenue seem therefore to be inevitable. 
From what source is the new revenue 
to be sought.^ 

Increase in Sales Tax 

Minor sources have been tapped by 
the recent legislation which increased 
the stamp taxes on cheques, money 
orders, etc., taxes on telegraph and 
cable messages, and various excise 
duties. A new excise duty on beet 
sugar and a stamp tax on receipts be¬ 
came effective at the beginning of 1923. 
But the most important of the recent 
changes has been the increase in the 
sales tax, which is now levied at the 
following rates: 

2i per cent on sales by manufacturers or 
producers to wholesalers or jobbers. 

21 per cent on all sales by wholesalers and 
jobbers. 

41 per cent on sales by manufacturers or 
produeers direct to retailers or con¬ 
sumers. 

per cent on imported goods: but where 
goods are imported by retailers or 
consumers, the rate is 6 per cent. 


The sales tax has been favorably re¬ 
ceived in Canada (so far as any new 
tax can be said to be welcome), and it 
seems to be regarded, at least by the 
business community, as the most 
promising instrument for abolishing 
the national deficit. Unlike the cus¬ 
toms duties, it does not offend the free 
trader; its ease of collection, its de¬ 
pendability, its elasticity, render it 
satisfactory from the administrative 
point of view; and it receives further 
influential support from the belief that 
it is entirely shifted to consumers, does 
not constitute a fresh burden upon 
“business,’" and does not check the 
accumulation of capital. In public dis¬ 
cussions, not much has been heard with 
regard to its final incidence, its justice, 
or its probable remote effects. The 
justice of a “tax in proportion to ex¬ 
penditure ” is popularly accepted with¬ 
out regard to the probability that the 
portion of the tax which falls on pro¬ 
ducers’ goods would tend in many 
cases to be shifted to consumers; so 
that the investing classes would escape 
a part of the burden, and the tax would 
in fact be regressive. Some effort has, 
however, been made to lessen the re¬ 
gressive effect of the Canadian tax by 










































218 


The Annals of the American Academy 


exempting from it many foodstuffs, all 
kinds of fuel, and various other com¬ 
modities. The probable effect of the 
sales tax in increasing the advantages 
of vertical combinations is rarely 
mentioned. 

Nobody knows to what extent 
pyramiding takes place; but we have 
some indication of the views of Parlia¬ 
ment in the clause which imposes a tax 
of 6 per cent (in addition to the cus¬ 
toms duties) upon articles imported 
into Canada by retailers or consumers. 
Perhaps the average price of commodi¬ 
ties is not increased 6 per cent by the 
pyramiding of the sales tax. If not, the 
tax would operate as additional pro¬ 
tection. If the prices of commodities 
in general are to be increased by 6 per 
cent or more as a result of the tax, it 
seems desirable to investigate the 
probable effect of such an increase on 
different classes in the community. 
The absence of discussion on these 
lines is notable. In welcoming the 
sales tax, the people of Canada are 
diverging far from the general move¬ 
ment in favor of direct and progressive 
taxation. They are, however, collect¬ 
ing a large and increasing revenue; and 
the tax may be called “painless” inas¬ 
much as no individual knows how 
much he is paying. 

Income Tax 

The most obvious alternative to the 
sales tax as a source of expanding 
revenue is the income tax. Consider¬ 
able improvement has been made in its 
administration. The yield (in thou¬ 
sands of dollars) has been 


1919. 

. $9,350 

1920. 

. 20,264 

1921. 

. 46,382 

1922. 

. 78,393 


Each year, the amount of increase has 
been greater. The tax is levied at the 
moderate normal rate of 4 per cent, 
with $2,000 exemption for a married 


man. The tax is progressive. It is be¬ 
lieved that there is still much evasion. 

Figures which were widely quoted in 
Canada, but which are too bulky to 
reproduce here, showed that about one 
person in sixteen paid income tax in 
the United States in 1920, while only 
one in forty-five paid income tax in 
Canada in 1921-22. With these ratios 
as their text, some Canadian news¬ 
papers published jeremiads about the 
tax-dodging in Canada which they 
were supposed to indicate. Like most 
facile international comparisons, how¬ 
ever, this one fails to prove its point; 
for business conditions were probably 
better in the United States in 1920 
than-they were in Canada in 1921-22. 
Moreover, even had the comparison 
been made for corresponding points in 
the business cycle, it would not be sur¬ 
prising to find a larger proportion of 
taxable incomes in the more developed 
country. If evasion of the income tax 
is widespread, the argument for it, as 
opposed to indirect taxation, loses 
much of its force. 

A weakness in the Canadian income 
tax is found when the case of the, 
farmers is considered. Few farmers 
are accustomed to the elaborate meth¬ 
ods of bookkeeping necessary to esti¬ 
mate their real incomes in terms of 
money. The checking of their state¬ 
ments would demand an army of 
inspectors. It is not surprising that 
the proportion of income tax con¬ 
tributed by farmers has been noticeably 
small. Perhaps the tax would be more 
effective if some conventional method 
of estimating farmers’ incomes were 
adopted, as in England. Perhaps the 
farmers are already paying their share 
of the country’s expenses through the 
various taxes on consumption, which 
they are unable to shift to consumers 
of farm products,- in many cases, be¬ 
cause the prices which they receive are 
determined in the world-market. 






Ordinary Receipts of the Canadian Provinces Per Capita During Fiscal Years Ending 1920 


Dominion and Provincial Taxation in Canada 


219 


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220 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Striking Differences 

When we pass from Dominion to 
provincial taxation, we enter upon a 
field of striking differences. Each 
province has built up its own system of 
taxation to suit its own needs, borrow¬ 
ing occasionally from other provinces 
or from the United States, or develop¬ 
ing along original lines. The eastern 
provinces, older and more conservative, 
collect a smaller revenue per capita 
than the western provinces which have 
departed further from the laissez-faire 
tradition. Ordinary receipts or prov¬ 
inces from all sources in 1920 varied 
from $6.23 per capita in Quebec to 
$27.14 in British Columbia. The 
latter province has developed a very 
complete system of taxation. Provin¬ 
cial taxation varied from $1.87 per 
capita in Nova Scotia to $14.73 in 
British Columbia in 1920. The an¬ 
nexed table shows the relative impor¬ 
tance of the chief sources of revenue in 
the nine Canadian provinces. This 
table throws no light on the relative 
extravagance or economy of the differ¬ 
ent governments, because the services 
rendered by government are more ex¬ 
tensive in some provinces than in 
others. 

The student of Canadian provincial 
finance finds a difficulty in the fact that 
all the provinces use different systems 
of accounting and classification. The 
Dominion Bureau of Statistics has 
done some very valuable work in com¬ 
piling materials from all the provincial 
accounts and reducing them to a uni¬ 
form basis on which comparison is 
possible. This table has been compiled 
from materials furnished by the Do¬ 
minion Bureau of Statistics. 


The wideness of the differences is 
noteworthy. Succession duties yield 
9 cents per capita in Prince Edward 
Island and $1.39 in Ontario. Corpora¬ 
tion taxes yield 3 cents per capita in 
Quebec and $1.30 in Manitoba. Two 
provinces have income taxes. The 
others have none. The rates of taxa¬ 
tion and the methods of assessment 
show no uniformity. Some disquiet 
has been felt of late as to the effect of 
these differences. 

A high tax on insurance companies 
in one province, for example, may 
ultimately come out of the dividends 
of policy-holders in other provinces. 
A corporation which is already taxed 
by the Dominion may become the 
victim of heavy taxation in some of the 
provinces, and it may even be forced to 
pay taxes at varying rates to different 
municipalities as well. Various types 
of unfair treatment may result from 
this virtual anarchy of taxing authori¬ 
ties. Sometimes expensive overlapping 
takes place. The Dominion Govern¬ 
ment and the municipalities maintain 
separate machinery to perform almost 
identical work in the assessment and 
taxation of incomes. There is nothing 
to prevent the provinces from estab¬ 
lishing a third set of income assess¬ 
ment offices, and two of the provinces 
already collect income taxes. The 
Canadian Manufacturers Association 
has recently adopted a resolution call¬ 
ing for a conference between federal, 
provincial, and municipal authorities 
in order to secure greater coordination 
in taxation and to avoid conflicts in 
jurisdiction. The Canadian Tax Con¬ 
ference has recently been established 
at Toronto as a department of research 
in taxation. Interest in the subject is 
increasing. 


Municipal Taxation in Canada 

By Horace L. Brittain, M.A., Ph.D. 

Director of the Citizens’ Research Institute of Canada, Toronto 


Introductory 

HE nature of the municipal in¬ 
stitutions in Canada varies with 
the different provinces. In British 
Columbia, municipalities are called 
cities and districts. In Ontario and 
the eastern provinces, there are cities, 
towns, villages, townships and counties. 
In the Prairie Provinces, the county 
unit does not exist and in place of the 
townships and counties, are found 
rural municipalities. In the province 
of Quebec, there exist organizations 
called school municipalities which in 
other provinces would be called school 
districts. In all provinces, school dis¬ 
tricts have directly or indirectly inde¬ 
pendent taxing powers. 

In all Canada there are about 58 
cities and urban municipalities with 
10,000 population or over; 195 urban 
municipalities with population between 
2,000 and 10,000; and 605 urban munic¬ 
ipalities, having urban organization, 
with population of from 400 to 2,000. 
In addition there are many hundreds of 
rural municipalities, without including 
municipalities or school districts with 
independent taxing powers. 

In Ontario all municipalities operate 
under a general law called The Munici¬ 
pal Act. Charters are not issued to 
cities but special provisions may be 
made from time to time such as, for 
example, that providing for boards of 
control of some cities of 100,000 popula¬ 
tion or over. Also special legislation 
may authorize cities to operate under 
the city manager form of government. 
In. other eastern provinces, there are 
general municipal acts but special 


charters may be and are granted to 
cities and other municipalities. These 
charters may provide special powers in 
taxation not granted to municipalities 
in general. In the Prairie Provinces 
there are usually several municipal 
acts. For example, in Alberta there 
are the Town Act, the Village Act and 
the Rural Municipality Act. These 
acts and amendments thereto may 
from time to time permit different 
forms of taxation for the different 
forms of municipality. It will be seen 
that the task of giving even a bird’s 
eye view of municipal taxation in 
Canada is extremely dilBBcult, and to 
give a fairly accurate account would 
require a much greater space than is 
available. 

Sources of Revenue 

Taxation on Real Estate .—^The one 
tax common to all Canadian munici¬ 
palities is the tax on real estate, al¬ 
though here there are great differences 
with regard to the taxation of improve¬ 
ments. 

In Ontario and the eastern provinces, 
improvements are taxed at their full' 
value or at the value which the im¬ 
provements add to the land. In 
Manitoba, the assessment of improve¬ 
ments for taxation purposes on this 
basis is limited to two-thirds of the 
value, while in the Prairie Provinces and 
British Columbia there are great differ¬ 
ences in practice. In general it may be 
said that rural municipalities in these 
provinces exempt improvements and in 
British Columbia, until recently, several 
cities entirely exempted improvements 
from taxation. Recently a report of Dr, 



221 


222 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Adam Shortt to the City Council of 
Victoria recommended the taxation of 
improvements. In 1919, the Legisla¬ 
ture of British Columbia amended the 
Municipal Act by authorizing munici¬ 
palities to tax land and improvements 
at their actual value. In Alberta, the 
Town Act at present authorizes the 
council of a town to pass a bydaw to 
assess and impose taxes upon buildings 
and improvements upon lands not ex¬ 
ceeding their actual value. Villages 
may assess improvements up to 60 per 
cent of their actual value. All the 
cities tax buildings and improvements 
to land. In Saskatchew’an, cities, 
towns and villages may tax improve¬ 
ments on lands up to 60 per cent of 
their assessed value. Under certain 
circumstances, improvements on non- 
agricultural lands in rural districts 
may also be similarly taxed. 

According to the Provincial Report 
on Municipalities, the percentage of 
British Columbia municipalities ex¬ 
empting improvements from taxation 
is steadily decreasing. This seems to 
be true also throughout the West. In 
Alberta, Edmonton taxes improve¬ 
ments at 60 per cent of the value, and 
Calgary at 50 per cent, Medicine Hat 
at 55 per cent and Red Deer at 50 per 
cent. In British Columbia in the year 
1918, 37 municipalities out of 63 ex¬ 
empted improvements; in 1919, 33 out 
of 62, and in 1920, 27 out of 61. The 
taxation of improvements in Saskatche¬ 
wan cities varies between 30 per cent of 
the assessed value as in Weyburn, and 
60 per cent of the assessed value as in 
Swift Current. The average is about 
45 per cent. 

While it is impossible to ascertain 
from information at present available 
what percentage of the total taxation 
is on the average raised in the munici¬ 
palities of the various provinces from 
real estate taxation, it is within the 
mark to say that in many municipali¬ 


ties of the West, from 90 per cent to 95 
per cent of the total revenue from all 
sources is raised from taxation on real 
estate. 

In Ontario within the last few years, 
permissive legislation has been in¬ 
troduced to encourage the building of 
houses, particularly under $4,000 in 
value. The city of Toronto takes 
advantage of this legislation. The 
provincial law permits each munici¬ 
pality to levy taxes on 50 per cent of 
the assessed value of houses worth 
$2,000. The percentages vary for dif¬ 
ferent values. A house worth $4,000 
would be taxed on 90 per cent of the 
assessment value, while all dwellings 
worth more than $4,000 would still be 
taxed on 100 per cent of their assessed 
value. 

Business Taxation .—^The next most 
general form of municipal taxation is 
perhaps the business tax. 

In Ontario, the present business tax 
replaced the former personal property 
tax. This legislation was secured as 
the result of widespread agitation. 
The Ontario tax is based on realty 
values and is levied on occupiers for 
business purposes whether owners or 
lessees. The law provides 

irrespective of any assessment on land under 
this Act (The Assessment Act) every person 
occupying or using land for the purpose of 
any business mentioned or described shall 
be assessed for a sum called Business As¬ 
sessment to be computed by referring to the 
assessed value of the land so occupied or 
used. 

Different kinds of business are as¬ 
sessed on a different percentage of the 
assessed value of the land occupied. 
For example, distilleries are taxed for 
business purposes on 150 per cent of the 
assessed value; breweries on 75 per cent 
of the assessed value; wholesale houses 
on 75 per cent; most manufacturing 
businesses on 60 per cent; department 
stores on 50 per cent; newspaper and 


Municipal Taxation in Canada 


223 


retail businesses on from 25 per cent to 
35 per cent, etc. Of recent years, this 
form of business taxation has been 
under severe criticism. 

The laws in British Columbia do not 
empower municipalities to collect busi¬ 
ness tax. The same seems to be true of 
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and 
Prince Edward Island. In Halifax, 
N. S., however, a business tax is imposed 
under authority of provincial legislation. 

The three general acts governing 
municipalities in Alberta make provi¬ 
sion for the assessment and taxation of 
business. A municipality may elect 
•whether the basis of the tax shall be 
upon rental values of premises oc¬ 
cupied, or according to the floor space 
occupied by business concerns. Of six 
Alberta cities for which information is 
available, five use the rental basis, and 
the other the floor space basis. The 
City and Town Act of Saskatchewan 
provides for a business tax on the 
basis of a rate per square foot of floor 
space occupied. Manitoba legislation 
allows business taxation for cities, vil¬ 
lages and towns. In one city of the 
province the business tax is on the 
basis of 6f per cent of the rental value 
and in another per cent of the rental 
value. In Quebec, special charters in 
some cities provide for business taxa¬ 
tion. According to information re¬ 
cently supplied to the writer, in ten 
Quebec cities the tax varies between 2 
per cent and per cent of the rental 
value of the premises occupied. 

Personal Property Taxation. — Al¬ 
though the business tax has entirely 
replaced personal property taxation in 
Ontario, and is gradually doing so in 
Manitoba, many examples of personal 
property taxation for municipal pur¬ 
poses still exist. Recently in British 
Columbia where personal property 
taxation was confined to provincial 
government which also imposes a pro¬ 
vincial income tax, municipalities have 


been empowered to impose personal 
property taxation. Of six Alberta 
cities, with regard to which the writer 
has information, two receive income 
from personal property taxation. The 
Village Act and the Rural Municipali¬ 
ties Act of Saskatchewan provide for a 
certain taxation of stock in trade of 
merchants. In the Maritime Prov¬ 
inces, wide use seems to be made of the 
personal property tax for municipal 
purposes. 

Income Taxation .—Municipalities in 
Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Bruns¬ 
wick and Nova Scotia are empow¬ 
ered to collect income taxes for munic¬ 
ipal purposes by the general Acts of 
these provinces. British Columbia and 
Prince Edward Island have provincial 
income taxes none of the proceeds of 
which are distributed among the 
municipalities unless the provincial 
subventions to boards of education 
from the general revenues of the prov¬ 
inces may be regarded as refund from 
income taxation. Even in the large 
cities of Quebec such as Montreal there 
is no income tax. A Canadian citizen 
living in Montreal, therefore, has to pay 
but one income tax, i.e.^ the national in¬ 
come tax, while a citizen living in Onta¬ 
rio or British Columbia has to pay two 
income taxes; in the former, municipal 
income tax and a national income tax, 
and in the latter a provincial income 
tax and a national income tax. The 
Ontario income tax, which is probably 
the best developed of all municipal in¬ 
come taxes in Canada, is not graded 
but exemption is allowed for unmarried 
taxpayers and a larger one for tax¬ 
payers who are heads of families. To 
the taxable remainder is applied the 
ordinary civic tax rate. 

An idea of the relative productivity 
of the real property tax, income tax 
and business tax in Ontario, the most 
populous province in the Dominion, is 
given by the following table: 




The Annals of the American Academy 


Percentage of Total General Taxation Raised by 



Real Property Tax 

Income Tax 

Business Tax 

Hamilton. 

83.3 

7.7 

9.0 

Ottawa. 

79.5 

11.9 

8.6 

London. 

82.4 

7.6 

10.0 

Windsor. 

88.9 

3.5 

7.6 

Brantford. 

81.9 

6.7 

11.4 

Xitchener. 

79.2 

5.5 

15.3 

Kingston. 

83.3 

7.3 

9.4 

Sault Ste. Marie. 

86.9 

8.5 

4.6 

Peterboro. 

86.1 

4.8 

9.1 

St. Catharine’s. 

83.8 

6.7 

9.5 

Fort William. 

87.8 

3.1 

9.1 

Guelph. 

86.7 

3.2 

10.1 

St. Thomas. 

89.4 

4.1 

6.5 

Stratford. 

90.4 

4.1 

5.5 

Niagara Falls. 

90.9 

1.8 

7.3 

Port Arthur. 

89.9 

2.5 

7.6 

Chatham. 

87.5 

3.5 

9.0 

Sarnia. 

88.1 

4.4 

7.5 

Galt. 

81.8 

7.3 

10.9 

Belleville. 

16.5 

5.6 

7.9 

Owen Sound. 

82.2 

8.5 

9.3 

Woodstock. 

89.8 

3.0 

7.2 

Brockville. 

85.4 

7.0 

7.6 

Welland. 

91.7 

2.6 

5.7 

Toronto. 

77.5 

10.5 

12.0 




Other Occasional Forms of Taxation. 
—Examples are poll tax, service tax— 
Alberta—habitation tax, special fran¬ 
chise taxes. Special taxes on compa¬ 
nies are found in Canadian municipali¬ 
ties. Most municipalities also raise 
revenue by way of licenses. These 
are, however, not strictly taxes, al¬ 
though in some cases they may be 
partly in lieu of taxation. 

In Quebec, the Amusement Tax 
seems to be entirely for local purposes 
but in most Canadian provinces where 
this tax is in use, the tax is not only 
collected by the province but used for 
provincial purposes. Efforts have 
been made in British Columbia^ and 
other provinces to induce the Govern¬ 
ment to turn over a certain percentage 
to the municipalities. 

^ These efforts in British Columbia have been 
partially successful. 


The Automobile Tax also is a provin¬ 
cial tax. In several provinces the 
governments have been urged to give a 
share of the proceeds to the municipali¬ 
ties, but so far this does not seem to 
have been done. ^ 

For the most part in Canada, city 
municipalities are entirely separate 
from counties and therefore are not 
liable for county rates. This is, how¬ 
ever, not universally true. In Ontario 
towns also may become separated 
from the county but in towns which 
a^re not separate, in villages and in 
townships, the county rates are also 
applicable. 

While some provinces raise money by 
real estate taxation, such as the Wild 
Land Tax and the tax on real estate 
property not situated within munici- 

2 B. C. municipalities now receive a part of the 
proceeds of this tax but must spend it on roads. 










































Municipal Taxation in Canada 


225 


pal boundaries, there is no provincial 
levy on the basis of the municipal as¬ 
sessment. At least one province must 
be excepted but as a general principle 
there are no direct provincial taxes on 
the citizens of municipalities and on the 
municipal assessments. Manitoba levies 
a tax on the equalized assessments of 
municipalities. This is collected by the 
municipalities. 

Local Improvement Taxation. —Per¬ 
manent improvements such as side¬ 
walks, roadways, sewers, etc., are not 
as a rule financed directly out of general 
municipal taxation. In Ontario, for 
example, sidewalks and pavements are 
built on the basis of frontage, the 
municipality assuming the cost of 


intersections and on corner lots the 
cost of flankage, up to one-half of its 
amount, not in any case to exceed 60 
feet. The provisions with regard to 
the financing of sewers on the local 
improvement principle are too com¬ 
plicated to be outlined here. The 
policy of most of the provinces with 
regard to local improvements ap¬ 
proximates that of Ontario. 

There are wide variations in the final 
percentages of the total expenditure 
which are paid for out of general taxa¬ 
tion and in some instances the financial 
principle adopted is not the same. For 
example, in Montreal local improve¬ 
ments are financed out of a sort of 
rotary fund which is replenished from 


What Per Cent Are the Local Improvement Debts of the General Debts? 

{ i . e ., total debt less public utility debt) 


Per Cent That L. I. Debt Is 

OF General Debt 

No. OF 
Cities 

Per Cent That L. I. Debt Is 
OF General Debt 

No. of 
Cities 

16-20.‘ . 

1 

51-55. 

4 

21-25... 

1 

56-60. 

2 

26-30. 

2 

61-65. 

1 

31-35. 

7 

71-75. 

1 

36-40. 

3 

76-80. 

1 

41-45 . 

4 

81-95. 

1 

46-50. 

6 



Totals . 

24 

Totals. 

10 






What Percentage of Their Local Improvement Debts Is Borne by the Cities Out 

OF General Taxation 


Percentage of Cost Borne by 
City Out of General Taxation 

No. OF 
Cities 

6-10 . 

2 

11-15 . 

1 

16-20. 

1 

21-25 . 

1 

26-30 . 

3 

31-35 . 

4 

36-40 . 

4 

Totals. 

16 


Percentage of Cost Borne by 
City Out of General Taxation 

No. OF 
Cities 

41-45. 

4 

46-50. 

4 

51-55. 

6 

56-60. 

2 

66-70... 

1 

91-95. 

1 

Totals. 

18 


16 































































£26 


The Annals of the American Academy 


time to time by bond issues, as neces¬ 
sary. The tables below will give an 
idea of the importance of local im¬ 
provement taxation in Canada: 

Legislative Limitations on Taxation .— 
In general these limitations are of two 
kindslimitations of the tax rate; 
second, limitations of the general debt 
to a certain percentage of the assessed 
value. In Ontario the smaller munici¬ 
palities are limited in their tax rate, 
but the limit is so high that it practi¬ 
cally has no appreciable effect in limit¬ 
ing taxation. Moreover, the tax rate 
can always be lowered by increasing 
the assessment. In the cities, there is 
practically no limitation of taxation, 
except by limiting the general debt the 
charges on which have to be defrayed 
out of general taxation. Here also the 
margin of borrowing power can always 
be swelled by increasing the assess¬ 
ment. In some of the western prov¬ 
inces and in Quebec where they have 
strong provincial departments of mu¬ 
nicipal affairs, more or less effective 


control of municipal capital expendi¬ 
tures and, therefore, of municipal cur¬ 
rent expenditures and the tax rate, is 
possible. 

There is nothing in Canada to com¬ 
pare with the so-called Smith percent¬ 
age law of Ohio with its internal lim-, 
itations. The tendency seems to be 
towards strengthening provincial super¬ 
vision. In the province of Quebec, the 
affiliation of all the municipalities on 
the Island of Montreal for the purposes 
of financial control of the expenditures 
of weak municipalities exemplifies an¬ 
other tendency which later, may be 
more or less widely copied in Canada. 

Amount of Municipal Taxation .— 
Wide variations exist between Cana¬ 
dian cities as to the amount of munici¬ 
pal taxation imposed on their citizens. 
The burden of municipal taxation can¬ 
not, of course, be measured by tax 
rates, but only by per capita taxation. 
The table below will show the total 
per capita general and local improve¬ 
ment taxation for fifty Canadian cities : 


City 

Taxation 
Per Capita 

City 

Taxation 

Per Capita 
\ 

City 

Taxation 
Per Capit.4. 

1. 

31.56 ’ 

18. 

41.14 

35. 

66 73 

2. 

37.44 

19. 

35.90 

36. 

55 10 

3. 

25.13 

20. 

38.95 

37. 

46 40 

4. 

34.07 

21. 

36.22 

38. 

69 73 

5. 

53.79 

22. 

31.74 

39. 

54 49 

6. 

32.12 

23. 

47.84 

40. 

27 54 

7. 

24.07 

24. 

39.32 

41. 

35 13 

8. 

38.78 

25. 

27.81 

42. .. 

18 90 

9. 

29.00 

26. 

31.66 

43. 

17 15 

10. 

31.95 

27. 

45.26 

44... . 

31 56 

11. 

38.50 

28. 

48.93 

45.. 

19 75 

12.•. 

33.32 

29. 

52.65 

46.. 

10 26 

13. 

27.93 

30. 

69.76 

47... 

14 83* 

14. 

25.16 

31. 

58.54 

48... 

29 17* 

15. 

36.46 

32. 

50.06 

49 

26 13 

16. 

24.10 

33. 

57.88 

50 

39.90* 

17. 

31.40 

34. 

59.44 









* School taxes omitted. 


































































Canada’s Rural Problem 

By W. C. Good, M.P. 

House of Commons, Ottawa 

“The well-being of a people is like a tree; agriculture is its root, manufacture and 
commerce are its branches and its life; if the root is injured the leaves fall, the 
branches break away, and the tree dies.**—Chinese Philosopher. 

“Agriculture is not only an occupation which some individuals follow for profit, it is 
a great national interest determining in a dominant way the fortunes of the nation and 
the opportunities and the character of the population. So, while the improving of 
Canadian agriculture primarily concerns the farmer and his family, it affects the 
status of Canada, its outlook and its destiny.**—Dr. James W. Robertson. 


A FEW years ago the following 
sketeh appeared in a little series 
of Studies in Rural Citizenship, pre¬ 
pared for the Canadian Couneil of 
Agrieulture by J. S. Woodsworth: ^ 

A TRIP ACROSS CANADA 

Nova Scotia .—Let me give a few 
glimpses as we hastily cross the country. 
Several years ago an old resident took me 
for a drive through an old settled part of 
Nova Scotia. He seemed to know the 
history of every farm. Perhaps it was 
because he was an old man, but he shook 
his head regretfully as he thought of the 
former days. 

It was beautiful country. The land 
had produced good crops in the early 
days. Some farms had been “worked 
out.” But the majority of them if they 
were worked properly would pay weU. 
The milk industry had given an impetus 
to cattle raising and the experimental 
farm was gradually raising the grade of 
cattle and increasing the profits. But 
notwithstanding this, we passed farm 
after farm that had been abandoned. 
Why.^ Oh! the young people had gone 
to the States or to Western Canada. The 
older people grew discouraged. They 
could not get help. They had followed 
their children west, or moved into the 
cities, or died and left no one to take up 
their work. So the comfortable old 
homestead was left desolate. 

1 Pp. 9-12. 


But around some of these old homes 
there was every evidence of life. Who 
lived there? Foreigners—Poles from 
the mines at Sydney. They had secured 
enough money to get together a few 
things and buy or make a payment on a 
piece of land. Yes, some way they were 
making a good living as the earlier 
generations of French and English pio¬ 
neers had done. Here, then, even in the 
rural districts of the far East there was 
beginning a foreign invasion that was 
quietly substituting Slavic for Anglo- 
Saxon stock. I had read of such condi¬ 
tions in New England, but here they 
were already in Canada. 

Quebec .—Let us come to Montreal. I 
remember a delightful motor ride in 
which a French Canadian gentleman 
took us far out into the country. Again 
a fine country, splendid roads, an old 
settled district. A few years ago it had 
been well tilled, chiefly by small farmers 
and market gardeners. In places there 
were fine old country residences, but 
some of these were boarded up, others 
sadly out of repair, and field after field, 
formerly cultivated, was now a tangle of 
grass and weeds. The cause? Many of 
the earlier inhabitants had sold out and 
moved into the city or to the factory 
towns in the United States or further 
back into new territory. 

Then had come a period of prosperous 
intensive farming. But the city had 
grown rapidly and extended on every 
side. Speculators had come in, bought 


228 


The Annals of the American Academy 


up all the farms within a radius of many 
miles and subdivided them into building 
lots which they held at an impossible 
figure. Here and there a sleepy old 
village had sprung into life. Summer 
residences had gone up. Suburban trains 
carried many city workers back and 
forth throughout the year. But other 
districts were almost depleted. The old 
community life was at an end and life¬ 
long neighbors had been scattered to the 
four winds. 

Eastern Ontario .—Another drive, this 
time along an old settled “concession” 
in eastern Ontario. My companion had 
been visiting his old home and during 
this somewhat lengthened visit had 
learned of all the changes and happenings 
in the countryside. “Do you know,” he 
said, “I feel very lonesome now in these 
parts where I used to know everyone. 
There are hardly any of the old families 
left, and somehow it’s a different class that 
has come in. In my younger days there 
were a dozen families on this and the 
next concession that formed the rural 
aristocracy of this district. Our grand¬ 
fathers had come into the forests and 
cleared their farms. Then our fathers 
were all well-to-do. They gave us a 
good education. We had splendid times 
together. The church was strong and 
the center of the whole life of the com¬ 
munity. Now, well, I went to church on 
Sunday and there were only a handful 
present. They say that the ‘renters’ 
won’t support the church and the Eng¬ 
lish people don’t care about church.” 
“English.^” “Yes, I visited the old 
school. Not nearly as many as in my 
day, and half of them ‘home children.’ 
The servant girls are home girls and tlie 
hired men are all green Englishmen. 
Don’t know the first thing about farm- 
ing. 

“But where,” I asked, “have the old 
families gone and where are their chil¬ 
dren?” “Well,” he replied, “our next 
neighbor moved to the village. None of 
the boys took to farming and we have 
had a succession of renters ever since. 
Further up the line, where you can see 
that big barn, the boys went out to 


Dakota. The old man farmed himself 
for awhile. A few years ago he brought 
in an Englishman and his family and 
gave them the old house to live in and 
farmed on shares. He is gone; I guess 
the Englishman pretty nearly owns the 
farm by this time. 

“That old place with the orchard is 
still in the same family, and see, they are 
putting up a new barn—using the timbers 
of the old barn. In fact, the descendants 
of the old timers are making things go 
only because they have inherited the 
farm. They’re not making interest on 
the capital—that is, the most of them. 
A few are doing well. There’s Sam 
McGee on the ‘second line.’ He has 
gone into thoroughbreds and is coining 
money, and big Dick Murphy, old Pat 
Murphy’s son, is making a good thing 
out of his potatoes, but they are excep¬ 
tions.” 

Old Ontario .—A long drive out from 
Toronto, past far stretching suburbs, on 
past the well-knovTi village of long ago, 
where now an enterprising real estate 
agent is offering “beautiful residential 
lots only thirty minutes from the city,” 
on to where “the country” used to be. 
But where are the old one hundred- and 
two hundred-acre farms of a generation 
ago? Gone! Now market gardens and 
orchards for miles, and beyond farms, 
but farms held by tenants—owners Eng¬ 
lish or Belgian syndicates. And the old 
home life—much changed—much lost— 
much gained—hardly recognizable. 

Western Ontario .—A trolley ride in 
Essex. The houses come in quick suc¬ 
cession, old farmhouses and between 
them newer houses close to the road, and 
everywhere carefully worked fields with, 
to me, strange plants in regular rows. 
Not cabbage; no, these are tobacco plan¬ 
tations! Everyone, I am told, is going 
in for tobacco. Even in the towns the 
vacant lots are carefully planted. “ Good 
money in tobacco and an increasingly 
good market.” 

A real estate agent, an old timer who 
was now acting for an American syndi¬ 
cate, told me of the many changes in the 


Canada’s Rural Problem 


229 


district. The country was undoubtedly 
prosperous—a good market, and con¬ 
siderable capital coming in. Much land 
had recently changed hands. Many of 
the farms were bought up by American 
syndicates, drained and otherwise im¬ 
proved, and then sold to farmers from 
the eastern middle states, who were glad 
to get such relatively cheap land. Where 
have the farmers gone.? To the North¬ 
west and to the cities. 

Southern Manitoba .—Let us follow our 
Canadians west. I have had numerous 
drives through southern Manitoba. 
These are old settled districts—for the 
West. But here, too, are changes— 
good railway connections, telephones in 
many homes, the pioneer stage passed. 
But the villages are stagnant and in 
many parts the land yielding less and less 
every year, and in some districts seeded 
down with noxious weeds. The old 
timers? Some gone still further west; 
some made their money and gone to the 
city to live and speculate in real estate. 
Tenants are careless and do not keep the 
land clean, nor do they take the place of 
the owners in the life of the community. 
The schools are not so ejBBciently manned 
and it is a struggle now to raise the 
minister’s salary. In the village the re¬ 
tired farmers are not very keen on any 
improvements that will mean increased 
taxation. This in a young western 
province. 

The New West .—A friend has recently 
been telling me of an interesting prairie 
farm. It consists of 64,000 acres and is 
owned by an English syndicate. It is 
under the direction of a manager, who is 
a graduate of an eastern agricultural col¬ 
lege, and who draws almost as large a 
salary as the president of a bank. The 
farm is to be worked in sixty-four units 
of 1,000 acres each. Over each is placed 
a foreman, who is given an outfit of 
steam plows and other machinery neces¬ 
sary to sweep over vast acres of land. 
Big farms have often failed, but this is 
being run scientifically—a practical man 
at the head with plenty of capital behind 
him. 


But what of life in that community, 
even if the farm succeeds financially? 
Ever-changing gangs of men boarded in 
the company’s houses—camp life rather 
than home life. Suppose a good wage 
was paid, a good house provided, would 
you, my farmer friend, choose to estab¬ 
lish a home for your family under such 
conditions? If you incur the foreman’s 
displeasure your tenure of your home 
would be short. Then what about 
chureh and school and social life? 

Will the industrial revolution overtake 
farming? A century ago the village 
weaver in England lived happily his 
simple independent life. But today his 
son is working in a highly specialized 
trade in a huge factory in the city, in the 
management and profits of whieh he has 
no voice or interest whatever. How will 
modern commercial organization affect 
the farmer? Wliy should he be so differ¬ 
ent from his brother workmen in the city? 
This big prairie farm starts one thinking. 

Alberta .—On to Lethbridge. As we 
drive along we notice the irrigation 
ditches. We are in the dry farming 
district. A country apparently unpro¬ 
ductive has been secured by great 
companies, irrigation introduced on a 
large scale and then sold off to settlers, 
many of them Americans. Enterprising, 
wide-awake people, these dry farmers. 
Sooner than the Easterners they will 
apply scientific methods and learn the 
value of cooperation, and yet these farms 
seem so wind-swept, so bare, so much 
alike! There is so little of the homelike, 
and so much talk of profits per acre. Of 
course, all is yet new, and community 
life is not fully developed. But the 
visitor wonders if he could become any 
more attached to one of these made-to- 
order farms than to a suite in the city 
tenement. Yet in the city tenement 
thousands live and love. Perhaps we 
need new standards by which to appraise 
these new farms. 

British Columbia .—Across the moun¬ 
tains still other conditions confront us. 

I recall several drives and walks through 
valleys in British Columbia. Here on 


230 


The Annals of the American Academy 


bench land near the town were little 
clearings, each with its shack and young 
orchard. But out from the door came 
not a young Canadian, but a Chinaman. 
Farther down the valley a company had 
the contract of clearing so many acres at 
so much an acre. A group of dark- 
skinned Hindus, with their bright tur¬ 
bans, were clearing brush; while farther 
along we came upon a heterogeneous 
bunch of navvies armed with gunpowder 
and dynamite, whose task it was to blow 
out the stumps. 

A very different method from that of 
the settlers in old Ontario, who if they 
and their boys could not pull out the 
stumps with a yoke of oxen, left them to 
rot for fifty years while they went on 
with their living, building their homes 
and rearing their families. Into these 
same valleys, more recently, small 
armies of Doukobors have advanced, 
clearing the land with traction engines, 
building sawmills and canneries and 
setting up their strange community 
institutions. 

How different it all is from the quiet 
old homestead “down East” in which 
our fathers were brought up! Even in 
the rural districts, Canada today is not 
the Canada of twenty years ago. 

Rural Canada of Today 

Perhaps no more fitting introduction 
to the study of Canada’s rural problem 
could be had than the foregoing brief 
recital of actual observations. The 
main features of the problem are 
clearly shown in the picture itself, the 
essential truthfulness of which every 
competent observer will vouch for. 
There is no doubt that rural conditions 
have changed immensely in the last 
few decades. The Canadian farmer 
no longer lives a largely self-contained 
and self-satisfied life. On the con¬ 
trary he is being rapidly drawn into the 
great world currents. His products 
are marketed in distant lands, while 
through many intermediaries his sup¬ 
plies come from afar, even from the 


ends of the earth. The older homo¬ 
geneous population has well nigh dis¬ 
appeared, Over three and a half mil¬ 
lions of immigrants, many of them 
“foreigners,” have entered Canada 
during the last two decades.^ The 
volume of emigration, also, has been 
enormous, one writer placing it at over 
two millions for the last census period.^ 
There have been, also, tremendous 
internal migrations, from east to west 
and from country to city, the extent 
and character of which have been al¬ 
ready dealt with in Part I. 

The rural problem, however, is not 
coincident with rural depopulation, 
though the latter may be one of its 
aspects. Nor is it the problem of 
greater production, though that, too, 
may be involved in it. Nor, indeed, is 
it wholly the problem of more equitable 
distribution, though that, perhaps, 
comes nearer to a statement of the 
essential truth than anything else. 
What, then, is it.^ 

The Problem of Farming 

Viewed from the standpoint of the 
individual farmer, from that of the 
local agricultural community, or from 
that of farm technique, the problem 
varies much from place to place. 
Canada is a vast country, and it is only 
natural that the problems in the valleys 
of British Columbia should be some¬ 
what different from those of the 
prairies, and they, in turn, different 
from those prevailing in the prov¬ 
inces by the sea. But in its broad 
outlines and viewed from the stand¬ 
point of the nation, the problem is 
pretty much the same in all parts of 
Canada, pretty much the same, in¬ 
deed, throughout all English-speaking 
countries. 

^ Some Aspects of the Immigration Problem, by 
Charlotte E. Whitton, Assistant Secretary, 
Social Service Council of Canada, p. 3. 

® Jbid., p. 3. 


Canada’s Rural Problem 


231 


It has, I think, been well stated in 
general terms by the United States 
Country Life Commission, as follows: ^ 

The underlying problem is to develop and 
maintain on our farms a civilization in full 
harmony with the best American ideals. 
To build up and retain this civilization 
means, first of all, that the business of agri¬ 
culture must be made to yield a reasonable 
return to those who follow it intelligently; 
and life on the farm must be made perma¬ 
nently satisfying to intelligent, progressive 
people. The work before us, therefore, is 
nothing more or less than the gradual re¬ 
building of a new agriculture and new 
rural life. 

In his letter appointing the Commis¬ 
sion the late President Roosevelt said; ^ 

No nation has ever achieved permanent 
greatness unless this greatness was based 
on the well-being of the great farmer class, 
the men who live on the soil; for it is upon 
their welfare, material and moral, that the 
welfare of the rest of the nation ultimately 
rests. . . . Our attention has been con¬ 
centrated almost exclusively on getting 
better farming. In the beginning this was 
unquestionably the right thing to do. The 
farmer must first of all grow good crops in 
order to support himself and his family. 
But when this has been secured the effort 
for better farming should cease to stand 
alone, and should be accompanied by the 
effort for better business and better living 
on the farm. It is at least as important 
that the farmer should get the largest 
possible return in money, comfort, and 
social advantages from the crops he grows 
as that he should get the largest possible 
return in crops from the land he farms. 
Agriculture is not the whole of country life. 
The great rural interests are human inter¬ 
ests, and good crops are of little value to the 
farmer unless they open the door to a good 
kind of life on the farm. ^ 

The above statement may be made 
with equal force concerning the rural 
problem of Canada. It is a social 

* U. S. Senate Document, No. 705, p. 16. 

^ Ibid. 


problem in the widest sense and of the 
most comprehensive kind. It is a 
national problem; and it is a most 
serious problem, because if, under ex¬ 
isting conditions, Canada’s agriculture 
stagnates, our economic stability, nay 
even our solvency, is threatened. 

In the balance of this article an at¬ 
tempt will be made to outline in greater 
detail the various aspects of our rural 
problem, to indicate the direction in 
which solutions are being sought for, 
and to point out some of the remedies 
suggested or adopted. 

“Better Farming” and “Better 
Business” 

There is no doubt that, speaking 
broadly, movements of population are 
due to economic causes, and that our 
rural problem is, fundamentally, an 
economic one. Unquestionably, the 
securing of a larger return for the 
farmer’s labors will help solve the prob¬ 
lem. And this return will depend to 
some extent on the cost of production. 
Now the cost of production is partly 
under the farmer’s control. Proper 
methods of cultivation, improved vari¬ 
eties of plants, high-producing breeds 
of live stock, will all tend to decrease 
the cost of production. Knowledge of 
soils, crops and live stock, energy and 
good judgment in applying this knowl¬ 
edge,—all these will increase the farm¬ 
er’s returns, and, other things being 
equal, greatly assist in solving the 
rural problem. What has been done 
in these directions, through agricul¬ 
tural colleges and experimental stations 
is already set forth in this number of 
The AnnalSf and little further need be 
said here in that connection. One 
recent development in research, how¬ 
ever, not previously mentioned, should 
be noted. I refer to the farm surveys 
and studies in agricultural economics, 
undertaken during the last few years 
by the Ontario Agricultural College. 


232 


The Annals of the American Academy 


So far as I know this is the only con¬ 
siderable work of its kind yet carried 
out in Canada. Up to date it has 
dealt almost entirely with the problems 
of production and farm management; 
but the scope of the investigation is 
being widened to include production- 
costs and questions of marketing, and 
doubtless in time there may be added 
an investigation of expenditures and 
general social conditions. The de¬ 
velopment of this work is necessarily 
slow, but is proceeding steadily. For 
details the reader is referred to the 
various bulletins which have been pub¬ 
lished on the subject by the Ontario 
Department of Agriculture. 

Hitherto agricultural research and 
education have dealt mainly with 
questions of farm technique, with the 
application of the biological and physi¬ 
cal sciences to farm practice,—in a 
word with “Better Farming.” It has 
been discovered, however, that “Bet¬ 
ter Farming” will not alone solve the 
rural problem. As has been already 
suggested, the Canadian farmer has 
been drawn into the great world cur¬ 
rents of trade. He no longer lives 
a self-contained economic life, but buys 
and sells in the world’s markets. The 
question of price is therefore a matter 
of prime importance to him. High 
production on the farm will avail little 
if the farmer has to pay too much for 
his supplies and gets too little for his 
products. It has therefore been found 
necessary to give increasing attention 
to the question of marketing farm 
products and of ])urchasing farm 
supplies. Farmers themselves have 
organized, for the purpose of dealing 
with these matters, and the Canadian 
colleges of agriculture are now defi¬ 
nitely tackling them. 

Elsewhere ® in this volume will be 
found some account of the Canadian 
farmers’ cooperative efforts. Suffice 

® Part VIII, pp. 238-253 inc. 


it to say here that “Better Business” 
is beginning to attract well-merited 
attention. 

Freedom from Legal Exploitation 

The prosperity of the farmer de¬ 
pends, however, not only on good farm¬ 
ing and good business methods; it de¬ 
pends also on freedom from legal 
exploitation. For this reason farmers 
have recently organized to protect 
themselves and their industry by po¬ 
litical action. Smarting under real or 
fancied injustices, and realizing that 
these injustices could be removed only 
through legislative action, they have 
invaded the political world, with what 
ultimate results no one at this time can 
safely predict. Questions of freight 
rates, tariffs, public expenditures, roads, 
education, rural credits, etc., etc., are 
all engaging the farmers’ attention, and 
they hope to protect themselves in all 
these directions by political action. 
For details concerning “The Agrarian 
Movement” in Canada the reader is 
referred to the article on the subject 
in this volume. 

Taxation of Land Values 

Other things being equal farmers 
prosper by cutting dowm the cost of 
production. Now one element in the 
cost of production is the value of the 
land. It is therefore apparent that 
“cheap land” is an aid to agriculture. 
This does not apply, of course, to the 
case of a farmer who wishes to sell his 
farm and retire. But it does apply to 
all working farmers, to farmers as 
farmers and not as land speculators. 
For this reason the Canadian Council 
of Agriculture has for many years ad¬ 
vocated the shifting of taxation from 
labor-values—commodities—to land- 
values.'^ It is claimed that the effect 

’ The Farmers’ National Platform, issued by 
the Canadian Council of Agriculture, Winnipeg, 
Manitoba. 


Canada’s Rural Problem 


233 


of this change in the incidence of taxa¬ 
tion would be to decrease the farmer’s 
costs, both by squeezing out the 
speculative element in land-values and 
by reducing the prices of the com¬ 
modities he has to buy. Further it 
would prevent the holding of land 
idle, and thus agriculture would be 
encouraged. 

Another advantage which is claimed 
for the taxation of land-values is the 
encouragement of the purchase rather 
than the renting of farms. There can 
be no doubt that the prevalence of 
tenancy is destructive to good agri¬ 
culture and the community life, espe¬ 
cially when leases are for short periods. 
A tenant who rents a farm for a year 
does not, and cannot be expected to, 
take any adequate interest in the 
maintenance of fertility or in the com¬ 
munity life. He and his family are 
birds of passage. They get what they 
can during their term of occupancy, 
and then move on, to repeat the 
miserable practice on another farm. 
Such conditions continue at a nation’s 
peril. 

The Farm Home 

An extremely important aspect of 
the rural problem is the quality of the 
farm homes. In Canada, as in prac¬ 
tically all English-speaking countries, 
the individual farmstead is the basic 
arena of farm life. Family life on the 
farm is therefore of greater importance 
than elsewhere, and especially pro¬ 
nounced is the influence of the farm 
home, for weal or woe, upon the rising 
generation. 

No comprehensive surveys of Cana¬ 
dian farm home conditions have been 
made. Few thoroughgoing local sur¬ 
veys have been made. Conditions 
vary very much from place to place, so 
that it is impossible to generalize. It 
is safe to say, however, that the lot of 
the farmer’s wife is a peculiarly hard 


one. She has not only to do the 
ordinary housework, and often without 
the help of other human hands or labor- 
saving devices, but she has also to bear 
and rear children, and frequently share 
in the farm work outside,—milking, 
gardening, looking after poultry, etc. 
So far as convenient up-to-date houses 
and labor-saving devices are concerned, 
it is almost wholly a question of being 
able to afford them. No doubt some 
general progress in this direction has 
been made during the last few decades, 
but as compared with city homes and 
city conveniences, the Canadian farm 
home is deplorably lacking. 

Cooperative Ownership 

The cooperative ownership and oper¬ 
ation of labor-saving devices for the 
farm home is practically nonexistent. 
There are a few cooperative laundries 
and canning factories in rural districts, 
but nothing else as far as I am aware. 
The individual farmstead type of land 
settlement makes it somewhat difficult 
to develop these activities. That and 
an individualistic viewpoint seem to 
constitute our greatest difficulties. 

Hygiene and Sanitation 

As for the question of health in the 
rural districts there can be little doubt 
that the cities have made greater ad¬ 
vances than the rural districts in 
hygiene and sanitation. There is, how¬ 
ever, in the country, a growing knowl¬ 
edge of the dangers of water contami¬ 
nation; but too often risks are run by 
the individual family which the city 
community cannot afford to take. 
With the best possible opportunities of 
securing fresh air, sunlight, and good 
food, it is to be regretted that there are 
still many rural residents who suffer 
from lack of ventilation and from con¬ 
taminated food and water. There is 
much room for improvement, also, in 
the care of children, and in the adop- 


234 


The Annals of the American Academy 


tion, both for old and young, of a 
simple, varied, and nutritious diet. 
Too often “tastiness” rather than 
wholesomeness and cheapness is the 
dietary determinant, though perhaps 
this may be said of the city as much as 
of the country. 

Women’s Organizations 

In all matters concerning the farm 
home a variety of women’s organiza¬ 
tions are doing valiantly. In Ontario 
the Women’s Institutes—whose motto 
is “For Home and Country”—and 
more recently the United Farm 
Women, have done, and are doing, 
most excellent educational work. In 
Western Canada, also, there are pro¬ 
vincial farm women’s organizations 
whose activities are of a similar nature, 
while elsewhere are local organizations 
of like character in many places. The 
Provincial Departments of Agriculture 
and Education are also engaged in 
educational work of the same sort. 

Education 

An immensely important part of our 
rural problem, and as yet scarcely 
touched, is that which relates to educa¬ 
tion. In the first place there is the 
extension of agricultural education. 
The agricultural colleges can only di¬ 
rectly affect an exceedingly small per¬ 
centage of the young people in the rural 
districts, even when short courses and 
other devices are included. What 
means are to be taken to make avail¬ 
able, at the right time, and in the 
right place, the extremely valu¬ 
able information and inspiration which 
our agricultural colleges and experi¬ 
mental stations can impart? Here is 
a tremendous problem which awaits 
investigation and solution. In the 
second place and not wholly unrelated 
to the foregoing question is the pro¬ 
vision of secondary and higher educa¬ 
tion in and for the country. So long 


as ’teen age boys and girls must leave 
their homes on the farms and go to the 
cities for their schooling, the situation 
is bound to be unsatisfactory. To 
meet the need in this case the con¬ 
solidated school would seem to be ap¬ 
propriate; but as yet in Canada there 
has been comparatively little progress 
in this direction, Manitoba probably 
standing to the fore. In the third 
place there is the question of an edu¬ 
cation “for Country Life,” technical 
and vocational in a measure but not 
thereby ceasing to be cultural in the 
broadest sense. In this connection 
the Danish School System deserves 
special attention, but v^ery little gen¬ 
eral consideration has been given to 
it as yet. 

Other minor questions connected 
with rural education are school organi¬ 
zation, administration, and inspection; 
school taxes; the prevalence of young 
and temporary female teachers; teach- 
erages; etc., etc. 

Religion and Morals 

And now what of religion and morals 
in rural Canada? “The Community,” 
says Dr. Anderson, “needs nothing so 
much as the church, to interpret life; 
to diffuse a common standard of 
morals; to plead for the common 
interest; to inculcate unselfishness, 
neighborliness, cooperation, to uphold 
ideals and to stand for the supremacy 
of the spirit.” ^ What of the rural 
church? 

Here again we have little or no com¬ 
prehensive and exact information. In 
many localities the rural church con¬ 
tinues to flourish with undiminished 
vigor, but in other places it has dis¬ 
appeared or dwindled in importance.® 

®“The Country Town,” by W. L. Anderson, 
quoted by Woodsworth in his Studies in Rural 
Citizenship, p. 48. 

^ Rural Life in Canada, Rev. John McDougall, 
pp. 49-53. 


Canada*s lluRAL Problem 


In fact there is good reason to believe 
that rural church decadence has ac¬ 
companied rural depopulation, and 
that rapid immigration and emigration 
have not assisted in maintaining church 
stability. Then, too, sectarianism in 
the open country is both financially and 
spiritually far too expensive to con¬ 
tinue, and only now does church union 
offer an adequate remedy. If the 
church is to become a community 
force it must become united because 
the fimction of the church is to inter¬ 
pret, harmonize and spiritualize all 
community activities. No real and 
adequate community life can co-exist 
with sectarianism. In respect to 
church federation and church union, 
however, the prospect in Canada is 
at the time of writing, decidedly 
hopeful, since three of the Protestant 
churches in Canada are in process of 
uniting. 

Work of Socialization 

Considerable attention has been 
directed in recent years to the “So¬ 
cialization of Rural Communities.” 
Certain it is that the economic salva¬ 
tion of the Canadian farmer depends 
to a very large extent upon his capacity 
to cooperate with his fellow farmers in 
various directions; and equally certain 
that associative intelligence can only 
be developed by community activities. 
It is obvious, also, that if the farmer is 
to escape the mental and spiritual 
domination of the city he must not 
follow a policy of seclusion and ex¬ 
clusion, but must increase the variety 
and number of his contacts, so that, in 
short, he may gradually become a 
citizen of the world. In this process 
of widening contacts community ac¬ 
tivities constitute the first and most 
important part. 

(gr In the process of community sociali¬ 
zation many institutions and organiza¬ 
tions function. The home, the school. 


the church, the cooperative society, the 
farmers’ club. The Women’s Institute, 
the literary society, the football league, 
—all these help in the work of socializa¬ 
tion. I think, too, that the advent of 
Rural Free Delivery as well as the 
general prevalence and use of tele¬ 
phones and automobiles in rural dis¬ 
tricts is assisting in the process, in spite 
of the fact that there is, perhaps, less 
leisure on the Canadian farms now 
than forty years ago. 

Relationship Between Rural 
Districts and Towns 

An important phase of our rural 
problem arises out of the fact that the 
economic community does not coincide 
with the legal community. There is 
surrounding practically every town a 
rural district which is tributary to that 
town. The town exists, in fact, as the 
economic center of the surrounding 
farm land. But in the government of 
that town the surrounding farmers 
have no share. It is separately in¬ 
corporated, and from its own residents 
are chosen the town councillors. Not 
only has the farmer no share in the 
government of the town which is the 
product and center of his own activi¬ 
ties, but he is denied an adequate share 
in the social, educational and other 
advantages of the town. Nor has he 
any compensation in his own legal 
community—the township—which sig¬ 
nifies little to him as a community. 
The dijEculty is not an easy one to 
remedy, but a way out should be 
looked for. 

In the socialization of rural life it is 
important, in the writer’s opinion, to 
have some geographical centralization. 
At present, unfortunately, our com¬ 
munity life is weakened by being too 
much split up. The local school is the 
center of some activities, the local 
church of others. Others, again, center 
in the nearby town or village, while 



236 


The Annals of the American Academy 


others attach to the township. With 
small schools and competing churches, 
the situation is well nigh hopeless. 
School consolidation would seem to 
provide a center for all educational, 
recreational and religious activities, 
while the cooperative economic activi¬ 
ties could find a natural business 
center in the nearby town. Develop¬ 
ment in either direction has been slow. 
Concerning it the reader may consult 
Chapters III and VIII. 

Industrial Changes 

Another aspect of our rural problem 
has been the transference of local 
industries and handicrafts to the 
larger cities. McDougall refers to 
this,^® and Harpell has the following to 
say: 

In order to understand the effect which 
this process of elimination has had upon the 
country one requires to visit the thousands 
of villages and towns, which but a few years 
ago were thriving places, possessing many 
promising young industries that at least 
supplied local requirements and by the 
labor they employed provided an important 
market for the agricultural products of the 
community. Today many of these places 
are dilapidated and half deserted. The 
machinery in the plants lies rusting. The 
neighboring farmers, instead butchering 
their cattle, hogs and sheep for the local 
market are compelled to sell on the hoof for 
what they can get from the large slaughter¬ 
ing houses and packers. Their grain is also 
exported as it comes from the thresher in¬ 
stead of being ground, as it used to be, for 
home consumption, at the local gristmill, 
which has also been closed up in many cases. 
Thus the farmers’ products are shipped out 
of the community in the rawest condition, 
whhe the finished articles they require are 
shipped back to them. 

Rural Life in Canada, Rev. John McDougall, 
p. 57, et. seq. 

Canadian National Economy,” J. J. 
Harpell, quoted by Woods worth in his Studies in 
Rural Citizenship, p. 34. 


It is doubtful whether these changes 
are wholly in the direction of economy. 
Certainly they give the middleman an 
opportunity of* fixing prices, both in 
buying and selling; and perhaps the 
few gain at the expense of the many. 
But, however that may be, there is 
little doubt that such industrial 
changes contribute to the impoverish¬ 
ment of rural social life. 

Rural Credits • 

« 

The banking system of Canada has 
been already dealt with, but this 
article would be incomplete without 
some slight reference to the question of 
rural credits. Both in Ontario and 
Manitoba the provincial governments 
make provision for long and short term 
loans to farmers, and also take savings 
on deposit, which activities have not 
escaped hostile criticism from the 
chartered banks. It is likely, however, 
that the extension of credit by the 
community will continue to expand, 
particularly in view of the economic 
distress which has accompanied post¬ 
war deflation. 

For the solution of the rural prob¬ 
lem the farmers themselves must 
be primarily responsible. An era 
of farm organizations is already un¬ 
der way. These will be the chief 
instruments in the reconstruction of 
rural life. Of such Professor Mann 
says: 

The new organization will largely be 
fanner made and controlled. It is the 
stage of organized self-help. It will be 
marked by an apparently rapid shift from 
individualism to social consciousness and 
sense of co-partnership. The welding proc¬ 
ess is on. Group spirit is accumulating. 
Farmers as individuals will become less in¬ 
dependent; farmers as a class will become 
more independent. Evidences of personal 

^Report of American Sociological Society 
Vol.XI,p. 69. 


Canada^s Rural Problem 




and group power, large grasp, and achieve¬ 
ment will be outstanding. In reality the 
farmer will be seen coming into his own. 
Leaders of this awakened rural manhood 
must be clear-thinking, direct, and of su¬ 


perior intelligence; and their foundations 
must be laid in a sure understanding of 
economic and social laws and of folk 
psychology, super-imposed on reliable farm 
knowledge. 


Agricultural Cooperation in the Canadian West 

By C. R. Fay, M.A., D.Sc., 

Late Fellow Christ’s College, Cambridge; Professor of Economic History, University of Toronto 

The Prairie Provinces and in Particular Manitoba and Alberta 


H istorically the cooperative 

movement on the prairies is a 
confluence of two streams—the in¬ 
formal cooperation of farmer pioneers, 
and the dissatisfaction of the wheat 
grower with the treatment received 
from the railway companies and line 
elevators. The pioneers helped each 
other at barn-raisings, and thrashing 
bees. Being often far away from a 
railway they organized Beef Rings, 
taking turns to supply a whole animal 
which when divided up among the 
members secured to each a regular 
supply of fresh meat throughout the 
season. Many such rings exist today. 
But if the provision of fresh meat was 
a convenience, the satisfactory dis¬ 
posal of the wheat crop was a pressing 
necessity; and after the Manitoba 
Grain Act of 1900 had given to the 
farmer the right to a car, in his turn, 
and freedom of shipment over the plat¬ 
form, neighboring farmers banded to¬ 
gether to All the car allotted to one of 
them. In 1901-2 grain growers as¬ 
sociations sprang up to enforce and 
improve the Grain Act. From protest 
they proceeded to investigation and 
from investigation to action, forming 
in 1906 at Winnipeg, The Grain Grow¬ 
ers Grain Company. 

Relationship Fairly Uniform 

The relation between the Grain 
Growers Associations and the various 
farmers’ companies or cooperative 
societies since formed in the Prairie 
Provinces is fairly uniform. Consti¬ 
tutionally the two are quite separate, 
but both at headquarters and at local 


points the prominent members of the 
Grain Growers Association are also 
prominent members of the cooperative 
organization. Since the entry of the 
farmer into politics (and by the end of 
1922 all three provinces had farmer 
governments) leading cooperative offi¬ 
cials had been called upon to assume 
high executive office in the several 
governments. In this respect the 
Prairie Provinces have broken new 
ground, which is the more instructive 
in view of the fact that the British co¬ 
operative stores after a strick tradition 
against political action extending over 
seventy years decided in 1917 that “the 
time has now arrived for the Coopera¬ 
tive Movement to take the necessary 
steps to secure direct representation in 
Parliament.” Believing themselves to 
be faced with the choice between stag¬ 
nation and a breach with tradition 
British codperators preferred the 
breach. 

To those who are attached to a rigid 
two-party system and remember the 
shipwreck of earlier farmers’ move¬ 
ments on politics a similar choice by 
the farmers of Western Canada may 
seem hazardous. But it is necessary 
to look beneath the surface. The 
danger is rather that where the co¬ 
operative movement is young the ab¬ 
sorption of its members in politics may 
starve the cooperative effort at its most 
vital point, the local association, and 
throw upon the central executive the 
impossible task of managing with suc¬ 
cess a federal machinery unsupported 
by district loyalty. If politics are to 
react favorably on cooperation, it must 


Agricultural Cooperation in the Canadian West 


239 


be by the stimulus to local keen¬ 
ness; and the stimulus must be ap¬ 
plied with such tolerance that those 
who belong to a different political par¬ 
ty will have no cause to be estranged 
from cooperation as an economic 
endeavor. 

Amalgamation AND Work 

In its first season (1906-7, ten 
months) the Grain Growers Grain 
Company handled over two million 
bushels of grain, the whole on com¬ 
mission; in the year ending August 31, 
1916, during which the bumper crop of 

1915 was marketed, the company 
handled 48,000,000 bushels, 30 through 
its commission department and 18 
through its country elevators. At 
first no member might hold more than 
four shares, but in 1911 in view of the 
extension of trading activities, wider 
charter powers were obtained from the 
Dominion Government, and the maxi¬ 
mum was increased to 40, but the rule 
of one man one vote still obtains. By 

1916 the company had 18,731 share¬ 
holders scattered over Western Canada 
(Manitoba 8,655, Saskatchewan 7,246, 
Alberta 1,356, elsewhere 1,474). In 
June, 1917, the Grain Growers Grain 
Company amalgamated with the Al¬ 
berta Farmers Cooperative Elevator 
Company, which had been established 
under provincial charter in 1913, on the 
plan of the Saskatchewan Company 
hereafter described. 

The new style of the company is The 
United Grain Growers Ltd., Mr. T. A. 
Crerar, who had been President of the 
Grain Growers Grain Company since 
1907, becoming President of the united 
company, and Mr. C. Rice Jones, who 
had been a director of the Alberta 
Company, becoming First Vice-Presi¬ 
dent. The amalgamation was bene¬ 
ficial for two reasons: (1) It eliminated 
overlapping in Alberta, and facilitated 
the integration of functions between 


the rapidly growing mixed-farming 
province of Alberta and the metro¬ 
politan market of Winnipeg; (2) it was 
the occasion of introducing into the 
parent organization a more thorough 
local system, the shareholders in each 
locality being henceforth represented 
through delegates at the annual meet¬ 
ing on lines similar to those employed 
in the federation of stores which com¬ 
pose the English Cooperative Whole¬ 
sale Society. The Saskatchewan Co¬ 
operative Elevator Company (see be¬ 
low) retains a separate existence, 
though proposals have recently been 
entertained for joint action in the ex¬ 
port business. 

The Grain Growers Company began 
with sale on commission. In 1908 it 
entered the export business. In 1912 
it undertook the operation of terminal 
and country elevators, leasing a termi¬ 
nal elevator at Fort William from the 
Canadian Pacific Railway and taking 
over the country elevators which the 
Manitoba Government had erected in 
1910, in response to strong pressure, 
but had operated at a loss. The 
company subsequently built terminal 
elevators of its own, and the United 
Grain Growers now own and operate 
both terminal and country elevators, 
in addition to operating the country 
elevators leased from the Manitoba 
Government. In 1912 the company 
began to handle supplies, acquiring a 
timber limit in British Columbia with 
a view to the provision of building 
materials, leasing a flour mill in Mani¬ 
toba and acting as agent for the pur¬ 
chase of fruit and coal in carload lots. 
Then followed wire, binder twine, 
machinery and other farm supplies. 
Still more recent is the marketing of 
live stock on commission, for which 
purpose a new department was opened 
in 1916 with an office at the Union 
Stockyards at Winnipeg; and to secure 
coordination at the point of original 


240 


The Annals of the American Academy 


shipment, live stock shippers* associa¬ 
tions have been organized. Alberta, 
the leading cattle province, entered the 
field of cooperative cattle marketing 
as early as 1914, and today the United 
Grain Growers head the list of shippers 
in' the leading cattle markets of the 
West. Of the cars handled by all 
firms in the year 1920-21, the United 
Grain Growers had at Winnipeg 18.7 
per cent, at Moose Jaw 41.4 per cent, at 
Calgary 31.1 per cent, at Prince Albert 
47.6 per cent. At Moose Jaw and 
Prince Albert they have offices in the 
cooperative stockyards organized by 
the province of Saskatchewan. As 
now constituted the United Grain 
Growers Ltd. consists of: (1) The main 
company with its several departments 
—grain (elevator and commission), 
terminal elevators, live stock, farm 
machinery and supplies, accounting, 
organization (including propaganda, 
advertising, mailing lists and share¬ 
holders’ files); (2) the following sub¬ 
sidiary companies — Grain Growers 
Export Company Ltd. (Canadian Com¬ 
pany), Grain Growers Export Com¬ 
pany Inc. (New York Company), 
Grain Growers Guide and Public Press 
Ltd., United Grain Growers Securities 
Ltd., (insurance department and land 
commission agency), U. G. G. Sawmills 
Ltd. 

The general balance sheet for the 
year ending August, 1921, showed a 
net profit subject to taxes, of $233,000, 
as compared with $467,000 for 1920, 
and $148,000 for 1919, and this sum 
after provision for reserves and 
educational grants allowed of a 6 per 
cent dividend. The main profits have 
been made on the grain and live stock 
business, the other departments being 
less successful, and some of them show¬ 
ing substantial losses. Thus the gen¬ 
eral experience of European countries 
that cooperative supply is easier to 
handle than cooperative sale is re¬ 


versed: and for this there are definite 
reasons. The better marketing of 
grain was the raison d’Hre of the com¬ 
pany’s existence. The farmers felt 
themselves to be exploited by exist¬ 
ing organizations, and gave the com¬ 
pany all the custom that it needed. 
It only remained for the company to 
become as efficient technically, or 
approximately so, as existing private 
concerns. 

Obligations and Limitations 

The established marketing structure 
being elaborate and highly specialized, 
the company had to accommodate 
itself to this fact. It had to offer to 
the farmer outright purchase, sale on 
commission, purchase subject to grade, 
special binning and so forth; and as the 
operator of country and terminal ele¬ 
vators, it became subject to the same 
obligations to the general public as 
private concerns. It could not secure 
contracts for the whole of its members’ 
crops, as the cooperative fruit growers’ 
organizations have done, for not only 
were its members too vitally interested 
in the price of their main crop and, in 
many cases, under the necessity of 
turning it into cash as soon as possible, 
but furthermore the handling of the 
wheat crop on the pooling system 
would have been an operation of such 
magnitude as to be of doubtful success. 
The company therefore confined itself 
to what was practicable. At local 
points it gave improved services and 
brought down charges: at the central 
market it watched the farmers’ inter¬ 
ests, investigating complaints, and 
helping to dispel the irritation of the 
producer with machinery which.from 
its intricacy seems to him mysterious 
and malevolent. Where it could it 
rendered new service. For example, 
its representative in the Government 
Grading room on the top floor of the 
Winnipeg Grain Exchange unofficially 


241 


Agricultural Cooperation in the Canadian West 


inspects the samples of wheat belong¬ 
ing to the company or to individual 
members, after the grade has been 
assigned, and asks for a reexamination 
when there is a prospect of its being 
raised. 

But when it developed the export 
business it could not adopt the simple 
plan of handling only its own wheat 
any more than the Scottish Coopera¬ 
tive Wholesale Society can convey to 
its members the actual wheat grown on 
its farm at Hughton in Saskatchewan. 
Thus the Grain Growers Export Com¬ 
pany of Canada buys from outside 
parties, as well as from the parent 
company; but it does not get the 
latter’s wheat unless it bids up to the 
top price, and it could not conform to 
the lightning rapidity and fractional 
profit at which business is done, unless 
in its turn it were free to take grain 
from any source that offered. 

Lack of Success in Supply 

The comparative lack of success in 
supply appears to be due to the follow¬ 
ing causes: 

(a) In the case of the U. G. G. Sawmill. 
A harvest failure may so reduce the farmers’ 
buying power in the prairies in any particu¬ 
lar year that there is little or no demand 
for lumber from that source. When it 
endeavors to find outside markets for its 
products, it must either enter a new and 
difficult export trade, or turn to the do¬ 
mestic retail trade which is hostile to it on 
account of its past activities in the direct 
marketing of carload lots. 

(b) In the case of farm machinery. The 
company finds that established machinery 
companies which already possess their own 
retail distribution service—and the ubiq¬ 
uity of this service is one of the most strik¬ 
ing facts in the Canadian West—are un¬ 
willing to hand over this service to it. The 
obvious retort would be to enter into 
production; but on the North American 
continent the unit of production in this 
industry is very large and the market which 
^each concern supplies extends from coast 


to coast. When a failure in the wheat 
crop reduces buying power in the provinces, 
private concerns may find a good market in 
Ontario, or British Columbia, and when 
the agricultural demand is poor generally, 
they have an alternative in the supply of 
machinery for road construction, with 
which the manufacture of ploughs and 
tractors is technically allied. 

(c) In the case of minor farm supplies 
and general necessities. No insuperable 
technical difficulties are present here. But 
there is one prerequisite of success, namely 
local enthusiasm which will guarantee 
loyal patronage from members and ade¬ 
quate supervision by them of their local 
business. This has often been lacking 
partly because the locals have been more 
interested in breaking prices than in form¬ 
ing an enduring society, and partly because 
of the dependence, voluntary or otherwise, 
of a scattered farming population on the 
one or two existing stores in each little 
prairie town. 

Work in Saskatchewan 

When Saskatchewan was made a 
separate province in 1905, it possessed 
already a number of cooperative cream¬ 
eries, which had been organized by the 
Dominion Dairy Commissioner, and a 
number of Grain Growers Locals which 
purchased farm supplies in carload lots. 
The agitation of the Saskatchewan 
(originally “Territorial”) Grain Grow¬ 
ers Association for improved market¬ 
ing facilities led to the appointment of 
a provincial commission which reported 
in favor of a cooperative elevator 
system with groups of shareholders 
responsible for the elevators in their 
locality and a central company in 
charge of the whole, the Government 
to advance 85 per cent of the capital 
repayable in 20 annual instalments 
with interest at 5 per cent. An act 
embodying these recommendations was 
passed in 1911, and the same year saw 
the institution of municipal coopera¬ 
tion hail insurance under a Hail In¬ 
surance Commission. 


242 


The Annals of the American Academy 


In 1913 a special branch of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture was created 
to promote the formation of coopera¬ 
tive societies for purchase and sale, 
and the Agricultural Cooperative As¬ 
sociations Act was passed. The first 
societies to register under it were the 
Grain Growers Locals which had 
hitherto traded in farm supplies with¬ 
out adequate legal status. Since that 
date the range of activities has been 
extended till there are now 450 associa¬ 
tions engaged in business under the 
Act, the majority being supply socie¬ 
ties, while of the balance 60 are engaged 
in the cooperative shipment of live 
stock. In 1917 under the Saskatche¬ 
wan Cooperative Creameries Act the 
separate cooperative creameries be¬ 
came members of the Saskatchewan 
Cooperative Creameries Ltd., which 
took over the functions of the Govern¬ 
ment Dairy Branch, by whom the 
entire output of the creameries had 
been marketed hitherto. In 1921 the 
title of the “Cooperative Organiza¬ 
tions’’ Branch'of the Department of 
Agriculture was changed to that of 
“Cooperation and Markets,” the 
branch being entrusted with the ad¬ 
ministration infer alia of the Egg 
Marketing Act of 1920, which provides 
that “no person shall buy for resale or 
sell eggs unfit for human food.” 

Distinctive Features 

The distinctive features of the co¬ 
operative movement in this province 
are (1) the large measure of financial 
support given by the provincial gov¬ 
ernment to specially constituted co¬ 
operative undertakings, in particular 
to the elevators and creameries; (2) the 
thoroughness of local organization; (3) 
the excellent annual reports of the Co¬ 
operation and Markets Branch, from 
which the following details are selected: 

(a) Saskatchewan Cooperative Eleva¬ 
tor Co. Ltd. —On the average of 1917- 


22, 314 elevators handled 27 million 
bushels of grain per annum; in 1921-2, 
37 millions, on which a profit of $463,- 
000 was earned, allowing it a distribu¬ 
tion of 8 per cent on fully paid shares 
with a bonus of $3.50 per share. The 
company operates terminal elevators 
with a total capacity of 5,300,000 
bushels, and has its own ofllces on the 
Winnipeg Grain Exchange. 

(b) Saskatchewan Cooperative Cream¬ 
ery Co. Ltd. —The butter output in¬ 
creased by 85 per cent during the period 
of the war, and between 1919 and 1922 
the manufacture of butter has averaged 
3 million pounds per year. The excel¬ 
lence of its grading has won it a high 
place on the export market. In addi¬ 
tion the central establishment operates 
a big ice-cream plant at Regina, as 
well as several cold storage plants, and 
markets a considerable quantity of eggs 
and dressed poultry. 

(c) Saskatchewan Grain Growers As¬ 
sociation {Trading Department). —This 
department made rapid progress during 
the rising prices of the war period, but 
the cancellation of binder twine orders 
by the locals, as the result of the crpp 
failure of 1918, necessitated a heavy 
bank loan. In the year 1920 the total 
turnover of the Trading Department 
was $1,500,000: coal, binder twine, 
fencing material, and farm machinery 
being the main supplies handled. 

(d) Saskatchewan Municipal Hail 
Insurance Association. —Between 1912, 
the year of inception and 1918, the 
Association suffered two serious set¬ 
backs—one in 1916 when it was pos¬ 
sible to pay only 40 per cent of the 
total indemnity due to the claimants, 
and the other in 1918 when only 80 per 
cent was paid. To meet this defect 
amending legislation was passed in 
1919, which permits an additional 
levy on the acreage under crop, over 
and above the flat rate, in order that 
funds shall be available to pay the 


Agricultural Co5peration in the Canadian West 


m 


claims in full in any year. But for 
this amendment the Association could 
not have met more than 25 per cent of 
the claims payable in 1919, which 
reached $4,000,000. In a light year 
when the flat rate suffices, the premium 
paid by the farmers is about half that 
charged by outside companies, but 
against their low rate must be set the 
uncertain levy of years when losses are 
heavy. Whereas other forms of co¬ 
operative organization can claim to 
render services at least as complete as 
those rendered by private concerns, 
the scheme of municipal insurance 
clearly falls outside this category. 

(e) Saskatchewan Cooperative Stock- 
yards ,—^Following upon a commission 
of inquiry in 1915 cooperative stock- 
yards were opened in 1920 in Moose 
Jaw and Prince Albert. In 1921 
2,700 cars of live stock were received 
and over 2,500 cars disposed of. It is 
hoped that with the growth of local 
live stock shipping associations, these 
latter will become the regular channel 
for shipments to the central stockyard. 

(f) Canadian Cooperative Wool Grow¬ 
ers Association Ltd. {Saskatchewan 
Branch ).—This enterprise shows the 
same sequence of development as the 
cooperative creameries. It was started 
in 1914 by the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture acting as a wool marketing agency. 
Experts from the Dominion Live Stock 
Branch worked out a system of wool¬ 
grading; and 

a comparison between the prices received 
for graded and ungraded wool makes it 
quite evident that any additional expense 
incurred in grading was many times offset 
by the increased price of wool. (Report of 
1916-17, p. 30.) 

In 1920 negotiations with the Cana¬ 
dian Cooperative Wool Growers Ltd. 
(headquarters, Toronto), concluded 
with the handing over of the work to 
that body, which thereupon opened a 


western office at Regina, and now 
markets the majority of the 1,000,000 
pounds of wool produced in Saskatche¬ 
wan. A first payment is made when 
the wool is shipped. It is then sold, 
the greater part of it in June and July; 
and a final payment is made later, the 
amount of which is dependent on the 
grade of wool, ranging in 1922 from 2 
to 10 or 12 cents per pound. 

Part Played by Provincial 
Government Justified 

To sum up, the generous financial 
assistance given by the provincial 
government toward the formation of 
special marketing organizations for the 
leading agricultural products of the 
province has been accompanied by 
intensive propaganda designed to build 
up a keen local spirit. As a result the 
older established organizations are 
gradually approaching to a position of 
financial independence. The neces¬ 
sities of a new province justify the 
largeness of the part played by the 
government in the initial stages, but 
any slackening of endeavor towards 
the attainment of independence would 
be prejudicial to the spirit of self-help 
through voluntary association which 
is the hall-mark of genuine cooperation. 

British Columbia 

In 1896 the cooperative movement 
began to take definite shape in British 
Columbia. The Registration of 1897 
comprised: 

(a) The Farmers’ Institutes and 
Cooperation Act, under which a num¬ 
ber of institutions similar in structure 
to the agricultural syndicate in France 
and Italy were formed. Their chief 
purpose was the encouragement of im¬ 
proved husbandry, but many of them, 
like the syndicates in southern Europe, 
informally conducted a considerable 
business in the purchase of agricultural 
requisites in carload quantities. 


244 


The Annals of the American Academy 


(b) The Cooperative Associations 
Act, under which a number of general 
stores were opened, all of them short¬ 
lived, and contrasting strongly with 
the later success of the milk producers’ 
locals where farm supplies are operated 
as a back line to the marketing of a 
special commodity. 

(c) The Dairy Associations Act, 
under which some of the chief cream¬ 
eries now in operation, such as Comox 
and Cowichan, were incorporated. 

Further legislation in 1911 provided 
for the formation of associations with 
share capital supplemented by govern¬ 
ment loans to the extent of 80 per cent 
of the subscribed capital. Under this 
most of the fruit marketing organiza¬ 
tions were incorporated, their need of 
capital for the erection of cold storage 
plants being urgent. In 1915 this act 
was repealed and in 1920 a general act 
was passed, the Cooperative Associa¬ 
tions Act of 1920 which brings all co¬ 
operative associations in the province 
into line and makes them dependent for 
the future upon their own resources for 
the provision of working capital. 

Fraser Valley Milk Producers’ 
Association 

Of these various associations the 
most signal financial success has been 
achieved by the Fraser Valley Milk 
Producers’ Association, which ‘ was 
formally incorporated in 1913. The 
Association now controls the milk 
, supply of Vancouver with advantage, 
it is claimed, to the consumer, as well 
as to the producer. “Milk has been 
selling in Vancouver at the lowest 
price of any city in Canada, except per¬ 
haps Ottawa, which has practically the 
same price” {Agricultural Journal of 
British Columbia^ June, 1922, p. 101). 
The Association achieved its success 
by stages. In 1913 the milk producers 
were a disorganized aggregation, each 
so uncertain of the price he would get 


that he saw little profit in building up 
a good dairy herd. By 1916 the Asso¬ 
ciation was strong enough to sign up 
80 per cent of the milk producers be¬ 
fore arranging a price with the milk 
dealers in the city, and dealers who 
tried to entice individual suppliers into 
private terms were forced by the 
loyalty of members to fall into line 
with the Association. 

Finally the Association went one 
step further and itself entered into the 
retailing of milk. The plant of existing 
distributors was taken over at a valua¬ 
tion and considerable economies were 
effected in distribution, 60 wagons 
doing the work that had formerly been 
done with much overlapping by 120 
rigs. Creameries and an evaporated 
milk plant were opened, in order to 
handle the surplus of the summer 
supply, but all producers are paid the 
pool price, independent of whether the 
milk is used for consumption as milk, 
or for manufacture as butter, cheese, 
evaporated milk or ice cream. Success¬ 
ful in milk distribution, the directors 
in 1919 turned their attention to the 
supply of feed, organizing for the pur¬ 
pose 16 locals, each with their own 
capital, but all in union with the 
central office which acts as wholesale 
agent. Collections of feed to the 
locals are made by deductions from the 
jnilk cheques, due to the individual 
farmers; and by means of transfers in 
the accounts at head office, one local 
can supply another from its surplus. 

Strength of Capital 

A notable feature of the Society is 
the strength of its capital, none of 
which has been advanced by the Gov¬ 
ernment, and as this capital is with¬ 
drawable (i.e., not transferable), none 
but members actively engaged have a 
share in the management of the So¬ 
ciety. Starting with a capital of 
$40,000 of which 20 per cent was in 


Agricultural Cooperation in the Canadian West 


245 


cash and the remainder in notes pay¬ 
able in instalments, the Society had in 
1921 a paid-up capital of $489,220 on 
which (including milk sales and pur¬ 
chases for patrons) it did a trade of 
$6,000,000. It was fortunate in grow¬ 
ing to maturity during the high price 
period of the war, but whereas so many 
farmers and farmers’ organizations 
treated their abnormal earnings as in¬ 
come, this Society kept a great part of 
them back, and distributed them in 
the form of successive stock dividends, 
which enabled it to extend its opera¬ 
tions in the way indicated above. No 
less than three fifths of the capital was 
thus accumulated. 

The need of the fruit growers for a 
more efficient system of marketing was 
at least as urgent, but their technical 
problem was more difficult and they 
lacked that steadiest of all cash pro¬ 
ducers, the milk cow. Whereas in the 
Fraser Valley Milk Producers’ Associa¬ 
tion the individual suppliers are the 
shareholders of the central, the locals 
being only subsidiaries for the supply 
of feed, among the fruit growers the 
relation between the local fruit unions 
and the central sales agency (The 
Okanagan United Growers Ltd.) is a 
federal one. 

Typical Fruit Unions 

Among typical fruit unions are the 
Vernon Fruit Union, the Sumerland 
Fruit Union, the Kelowna Growers and 
Exchange, and the Penticton Growers 
Exchange. 

The Vernon Society leads in point of 
size, having a subscribed capital of 
$57,000 of which approximately $20,- 
000 is paid up. It marketed products 
of the value of $826,000 in 1921, and 
furnished its members with supplies 
valued at $310,000 (sprays, fertilizers 
and packing materials). Sumerland 
and Kelowna come next, each with 
sales of about one half a million dollars, 


and tradings accounts of about one 
quarter of a million. The Penticton 
Society makes a specialty of shipments 
by express direct to consumers on the 
prairies and elsewhere, sales under this 
head amounting to $31,000 (1921) out 
of a total of $180,000. The Peachland 
Society is a much smaller concern, and, 
as the name suggests, the leading small 
fruit shipped by it is peaches. But it 
is under the handicap of having no 
frost proof storage facilities and uses 
an old implement store as its fruit ware¬ 
house (1921). Apart from size, these 
fruit unions are almost identical in their 
nature. They were started in 1913, 
under the Act of 1911, which advanced 
80 per cent of the capital (to be repaid 
by a sinking fund), and the lack of 
paid-up capital has been a source of 
difficulty in financing extensions. Thus 
the Sumerland Society carries a busi¬ 
ness of about $750,000 on a subscribed 
capital of $22,000 of which only $4,730 
is paid up, though this does not include 
the $5,000 paid-up capital of the sub¬ 
sidiary storage company. 

The chief crop in all the societies is 
apples, and the members bind them¬ 
selves to make delivery of their produce 
by a contract which in Sumerland is 
yearly, while in Kalowna it is now a 
five-year contract, and in Penticton it 
contains a special clause which makes 
the growers personally responsible to 
the banks for amounts borrowed. 
Each society has its warehouse or ware¬ 
houses, motor trucks and packing 
equipment. Each has also the services 
of a subsidiary fruit storage plant 
which is incorporated as a separate 
concern with its own capital. The 
several societies by no means control 
the whole of their output. Thus in 
Penticton, “the acreage in orchard is 
about 1,100 acres of which about 50 
per cent is marketed through the As¬ 
sociation representing about 120 grow¬ 
ers” {Agricultural Journal of British 


246 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Columhiay August, 1922, p. 124). The 
collapse of prices since the war has 
proved a heavy strain on the loyalty of 
patrons. Thus “the Vernon Fruit 
Union has had to meet disloyalty 
among its patrons owing to dissatisfac¬ 
tion with the results attending the 
operation of the central selling agency ” 
{Agricultural Journal of British Colum¬ 
hiay November, 1922, p. 196). 

The Okanagan United Growers 
(Ltd.) is the central selling agency for 
the local unions which form its mem¬ 
bers. It is a non-profit agency with a 
nominal capital, and its working capi¬ 
tal is supplied by a levy, in the form of 
an interest-bearing loan deducted from 
the amounts due to shippers on account 
of sales. By this means it has been 
able to finance the distributing business 
and also to invest in subsidiary con¬ 
cerns: the O. U. G. Fruit Products 
Association which operates a plant for 
canned and evaporated fruits and the 
Growers’ Sales Agency which controls 
the selling system of the agency on the 
prairies and in American centers—the 
agents canvassing the fruit trade on a 
basis of salary and commission. In 
addition, it acts as wholesale agent for 
the distribution of growers’ supplies to 
the local unions. 

How Fruit Is Paid For 

The payment for the fruit is arranged 
thus: When fruit is ready for shipment 
the central selling agency instructs 
where it is to be shipped, and during 
the season advances to the locals sums 
aggregating 60 per cent of the esti¬ 
mated realizable value of fruit under 
contract in the district. Final settle¬ 
ment is made at the close of the selling 
season. When such time arrives the 
central selling agency determines the 
value of the fruit handled for each 
local organization, and deducts there¬ 
from the value of the growers’ supplies 
and cash advanced, remitting the 


balance to the shipping association, 
which in turn adopts the same method 
in dealing with the individual growers. 
In 1921 the agency marketed products 
to the number of 1,800,000 packages 
valued at $2,200,000 approximately, 
to the exclusion of a quantity of bulk 
fruit converted into manufactured 
products (evaporated fruits, jams, and 
preserves). The sale of growers’ sup¬ 
plies to the various locals amounted to 
$340,000," making the total turnover of 
the agency slightly over $2,500,000. 

Commodity Marketing 

British Columbia, like Denmark and 
California, is a country of specialty 
farming, and in such a country, co¬ 
operative effort is wisely concentrated 
upon commodity marketing. This does 
not exclude cooperative supply, which 
is operated economically as a return 
traffic, through an organization pri¬ 
marily created for the marketing of a 
graded product. In the case of the 
Fraser Valley Milk Producers’Associa¬ 
tion cooperation extends as far as re¬ 
tail distribution, but when the product, 
as in the case of Danish dairy produce, 
or fruit grown on the North Pacific 
coast has to be marketed at a distance, 
it is usually advantageous to leave to 
“the trade” the work of wholesale and 
retail distribution in the region where 
the produce is consumed. Fruit is a 
product which if carefully graded can 
build up the reputation of the district 
where it is grown. The product can 
be named, and the market extended by 
judicious advertising. 

But the best financial results cannot 
be received by the grower unless the 
sales agency markets a sufficient pro¬ 
portion of the entire tonnage to control 
effectually the distribution. As the 
directors of the Okanagan United 
Growers say in their report for 1921: 

At the present time we are in the position 
of having a very heavy tonnage to dis- 


Agricultural Cooperation in the Canadian West 


247 


tribute without having a sufficient percent¬ 
age to exercise control over distribution. 
. . . The fundamental defect in the or¬ 
ganization as it stands today is the inade¬ 
quate control of a sufficient tonnage to 
insure best results. 

This defect has been overcome in 
the older organizations of California 
fruit growers; and suspicion that this 


control, if obtained, might be em¬ 
ployed monopolistically should be ap¬ 
peased by the following considerations: 
(1) Membership is open to all growers 
and no attempt is made to restrict the 
amount of fruit which is planted. (2) 
British Columbia has to meet the com¬ 
petition of other fruit-growing districts 
in Canada and the United States. 


I 


The Agrarian Movement 

By M. H. Staples 

Educational Secretary, United Farmers of Ontario, Toronto 


F or more than a century there 
have been well-marked agrarian 
movements breaking out from time 
to time amongst the farmers of Canada. 
While Ontario was still covered with 
almost unbroken brush, and while 
log cabins were still the only shelter 
known to the pioneer, the men who 
were growing small patches of wheat 
among the blackened stumps of their 
little clearings began to organize. 
Feeling, no doubt, the isolation of the 
life inherent in a new and wild country 
they attempted to alleviate it by form¬ 
ing what they' called Agricultural 
Societies. These were not merely fall 
fairs as they have come to mean nowa¬ 
days, but were societies of broad inter¬ 
ests embracing social* activities, the 
study of public questions and of better 
farming methods, the encouraging 
of general education, and the promo¬ 
tion of contests in feats of strength 
and of prowess. All culminated in one 
grand rally at the annual fall fair. 

Rapid Growth of Societies 

The fair is practically the only fea¬ 
ture of the agricultural society re¬ 
maining today. More than seventy 
years ago the original societies began 
to drop their social and educational 
activities and farmers’ clubs arose to 
take up this work. These clubs, 
however, being entirely isolated from 
one another were very spasmodic in 
their operations and no solid progress 
in organization was made until about 
1874 when the Dominion Grange was 
inaugurated at a meeting of farmers 
held in London, Ontario. 

In the absence of adequate records 
it is difficult to determine the exact 


explanation for the rapid growth of 
the new Association. Certainly the 
germ came from the United States. 
It is said that it had its origin there 
in causes arising out of the Civil War, 
and aimed at creating a better under¬ 
standing among all classes and sections 
of the country. At any rate it grew 
tremendously there and when intro¬ 
duced into Ontario the branches multi¬ 
plied so rapidly that within three years 
they numbered more than a thousand 
with a revenue at central office from 
membership fees of $7,000. Many 
measures of peculiar benefit to agri¬ 
culture were passed by both provincial 
and Dominion governments through 
representations made by this body, 
but within ten years it had lost much 
of its vitality and had dwindled in 
numbers and in power. 

Then arose with spectacular sudden¬ 
ness a new organization, the Patrons 
of Industry. Whereas the Grange had 
been a fraternal society with a ritual, 
and had eschewed participation in 
party politics, the Patrons of Industry 
were almost purely political. The 
Association seems to have grown out 
of a demand for more aggressive leader¬ 
ship than was being given by the 
Grange, and although only founded at 
a meeting in Sarnia in 1890, by 1895 
there were sixteen Patron members 
sitting in the Legislature and one mem¬ 
ber in the House of Commons. But 
that marked the height of Patron 
power. Startling in growth, and rapid 
in decline, in less than ten years after 
its beginning it was non-existent. 
While some useful legislation resulted 
from its activities its one permanent 
contribution was to break the hold of 


248 


The Agrarian Movement 


party ism on the electorate. Never 
again could the farmers be herded so 
readily by a mere wave of the party 
flag. 

Wheat 

Meanwhile great changes had been 
taking place in Canada. Not only 
had the forests of old Ontario been 
cleared away, but many descendants 
of the pioneers had moved on west 
and were setting streams of wheat 
flowing every autumn from the prai¬ 
ries toward the Atlantic Seaboard. 
For handling the vast amount of grain 
shipped, even as early as the eighties, 
extensive facilities were required for 
loading, storing, and transporting. It 
soon became clear that the railway 
could not begin to provide enough cars 
to take away the wheat rushed to the 
stations immediately after harvest, 
and in order to provide storage they 
offered inducements to parties to 
construct elevators at country points 
by agreeing that if the elevator meas¬ 
ured up to a certain standard, a mo¬ 
nopoly of grain shipping would be 
granted in return, that is, no cars 
would be placed at any such siding 
to allow the farmer or a buyer to load 
in competition. All grain must go 
through the elevator. 

Now while this, no doubt, made for 
efliciency, it is readily seen that such 
a monopoly paved the way for abuses, 
and led to deep dissatisfaction on the 
part of the farmer. Grievances were 
aired in the House of Commons at 
Ottawa, resulting in the appointment 
of a Royal Commission of Inquiry in 
1899. The Commission after thorough 
investigation reported that abuses un¬ 
doubtedly existed from the effects of 
which the producer had no protection. 
As a result a measure known as the 
Manitoba Grain Act was passed in 
1900 laying down several conditions 
for the regulation of the grain trade. 


^49 

and notably it stipulated that the 
farmer should be given the privilege 
of loading directly on the car if he 
chose, and also that a buyer might 
load over a platform or flat warehouse 
even though there was an elevator at 
that point. 

The farmers were elated over the 
measure, but not very much of the 
grain had been moved in the autumn 
following the passage of the Act when 
it became clear that the farmers’ 
troubles were not over. Cars were 
ordered, but were seldom available, 
although the elevators seemed to be 
well served. The elevators, by united 
action, had cornered the supply of cars 
and the flat warehouse men and farmers 
were told to wait. But the farmers 
needed money, and need is a powerful 
goad. 

Formation of Territorial Grain 
Growers’ Associations 

Among these western farmers were 
many who remembered the days of 
the Grangers and the Patrons away 
back in Ontario. In the history of 
those associations there was much to 
discourage further attempts at or¬ 
ganization. Even in the West at an 
earlier.date there had been “Farmers’ 
Unions” and “Patrons of Industry,” 
organizations that had ended disas¬ 
trously. But in all of these there had 
been good features and the power of 
united effort had been demonstrated. 
There were men in the West who be¬ 
lieved that in the light of past ex¬ 
perience a new organization could 
be formed by embodying all that 
was best in the old and avoiding the 
bypaths which formerly had led to 
destruction. 

Strong in this belief a handful of 
men met at Indian Head in December, 
1901, following a good deal of corre¬ 
spondence, and formed what they 
called the Territorial Grain Growers’ 


250 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Association. News of this meeting 
spread rapidly over the prairies pre¬ 
paring the way for advocates of organi¬ 
zation who went here and there wher¬ 
ever opportunity offered. Within two 
months thirty-eight locals had been 
organized and by the next autumn 
locals were to be found from one end 
of the prairie to the other. 

First Demonstration of Usefulness 

Now came the time for a test of use¬ 
fulness. It soon became clear that 
the railway had no intention of chang¬ 
ing its practice and after a formal 
protest had been lodged the Associa¬ 
tion entered a charge in the courts 
against the railway for violation of 
the Manitoba Grain Act. Very few 
had confidence in the young Association 
being able to make headway against 
the powerful interests represented by 
the railway, but the farmers were suc¬ 
cessful in winning their case and in 
securing an order directing the rail¬ 
way to distribute cars as the Act 
required. 

Here was the first demonstration that 
organization was worth while. The 
work begun in the midprairies was 
continued in Manitoba, and at Virden 
in January, 1903, the Virden Grain 
Growers’ Association was inaugurated. 
Soon after that the farmers decided to 
go into business for themselves and in 
1906 the Grain Growers Grain Com¬ 
pany was incorporated. Following 
this, away next the foothills of the 
Rockies in 1909 the United Farmers 
of Alberta grew out of the various or¬ 
ganizations then functioning in that 
province. There were now three pow¬ 
erful associations on the prairies as well 
as a farmer-owned grain company, all 
linked together in the Interprovincial 
Council of Grain Growers’ and Farm¬ 
ers’ Associations formed in 1907. 
About this time the western farmers 
turned their eyes toward the East 


and sent three of their number to 
attend the annual meeting of the 
Grange in Toronto in 1910, to advocate 
cooperation between eastern and west¬ 
ern farmers. So deep an impression 
did they create by their visit that 
shortly afterwards the Interprovincial 
Council was renamed the Canadian 
Council of Agriculture and in addi¬ 
tion to former members included the 
Grange. 

Entrance of Politics 

Now begins a slightly different story. 
Up to this time political questions had 
been left severely alone by the new 
associations. But for many years the 
western farmers in particular had been 
smarting under what they considered 
an injustice imposed upon them by the 
Canadian Tariff. Wheat, the product 
from which they derived most of their 
revenue, they had to sell in the open 
market in competition with the wheat 
producers of the world. Farm ma¬ 
chinery, building supplies, and house¬ 
hold requirements they purchased for 
the most part in a market carefully 
shielded by a highly protective tariff. 
They stood, therefore, for tariff re¬ 
duction; in fact, many advocated free 
trade. Nor,were there wanting plenty 
of farmers in the East who held identi¬ 
cal views. Consequently one of the 
first acts of the new general council was 
to organize a deputation of farmers to 
wait upon the government at Ottawa, 
praying for tariff revision, advocating 
reciprocity with the United States in 
natural products and many manufac¬ 
tured articles, and recommending the 
application of public ownership to 
railways, grain elevators, and telegraph 
and telephone service. 

The delegates from Western Canada, 
five hundred strong, left Winnipeg by 
special train on the evening of Decem¬ 
ber 12, 1910. They held meetings all 
the way to Ottawa, spokesmen going 


The Agrarian Movement 


251 


from car to car to discuss the matters 
to be brought before the Government. 
At Ottawa they were joined by three 
hundred eastern farmers, mostly from 
Ontario, but drawn also from Quebec 
and the Maritimes. In the legislative 
chamber they were received by Sir 
Wilfred Laurier, the Prime Minister, 
who listened sympathetically to their 
presentation and who made reply that 
while personally he was no friend of 
public ownership he looked with favor 
upon every attempt to secure better 
trade relationships with other coun¬ 
tries, particularly with Great Britain 
and the United States. 

Following this demonstration, repre¬ 
sentatives of Canada were dispatched 
to Washington to open up negotiations 
for a new trade agreement on the 
principles advocated by the delegation. 
After lengthy conference they returned 
with something even better than they 
had dared to hope for, reciprocity in 
natural products with mutual reduc¬ 
tions on a number of manufactured 
articles. At first everyone was de¬ 
lighted, as it was a measure which had 
been earnestly sought after by Ca¬ 
nadian statesmen of all parties for 
years. But somehow, the manufac¬ 
turers decided to oppose the agreement, 
and in the general election which fol¬ 
lowed in the summer of 1911 the party 
in opposition was* triumphantly re¬ 
turned and the farmers’ hopes were 
dashed to the ground. Thus while 
the organized farmers had been strong 
enough to force an issue upon the 
country they had proved unequal to 
the task of keeping the issue clear be¬ 
fore the electorate in the face of all 
manner of charges, and appeals to 
race, creed, and party prejudice raised 
by the opposition. 

New Organizations 

While the Western Associations went 
steadily on, educating their members 


and building up commercial companies, 
the Ontario Grange showed every sign 
of exhaustion. After the defeat of 
reciprocity no general meeting- was 
held for nearly two years. At last 
four farmers met in Toronto in the 
autumn of 1913 to see if something 
could not be done to revive interest 
in agricultural organization, and as an 
outcome of their discussion a meeting 
attended by some two hundred dele¬ 
gates from farmers’ clubs and subordi¬ 
nate Granges was assembled in Toronto 
in the following March, where the 
United Farmers of Ontario, and the 
United Farmers’ Cooperative Com¬ 
pany, Ltd., were launched. Of the 
commercial company nothing need 
be said except that within six years it 
had a paid-up capital of $1,000,000 
and an annual turnover of $20,000,000. 
The Association grew slowly at first, 
but owing to increased vexations aris¬ 
ing out of war conditions the restless¬ 
ness of the farmer found an outlet in 
organization, and at the annual con¬ 
vention four years after inauguration 
the secretary could report nearly a 
thousand clubs in affiliation with a 
membership of thirty thousand. 

Army Exemption Brings Matters 
TO Head 

Just about this time a series of 
events occurred which upset all cal¬ 
culations. In the late autumn of 
1917 a Dominion Election had been 
fought on the issue of conscription. 
The farmers had been urged to produce 
to the limit, and the Government had 
promised to exempt from the army 
young men actively engaged in farm¬ 
ing. Not many weeks after the elec¬ 
tion this exemption was cancelled. 
A cry of protest went up all over the 
country, and in May a delegation of 
four thousand farmers from Ontario 
and nearly as many from Quebec 
swarmed in the streets of Ottawa seek- 


252 


The Annals of the American Academy 


ing an interview with the Government 
to advise them that a mistake was being 
made. To their representations scant 
attention was given; to a demand for a 
hearing at the bar of the House a flat 
refusal was returned. Having lodged 
a protest with the Governor General 
the farmers returned to their homes, 
angered not so much because their 
request for reconsideration was un¬ 
heeded, but because, as they consid¬ 
ered, the doors of Parliament had been 
shut in their faces by their own repre- 
sentativ^es. This feeling was not im¬ 
proved by the scorn, sarcasm and 
abuse heaped upon the farmers by the 
press. Smouldering resentment broke 
into open rage which found expression 
in a huge public meeting held in To¬ 
ronto three weeks later. 

After two days’ deliberation the 
delegates went home determined to 
establish a farmers’ own newspaper, 
to organize on every concession road, 
and to take direct, independent po¬ 
litical action. Before many months 
were up two members at by-elections 
had been returned to the Provincial 
House and two to the Dominion House, 
and at the provincial general elections 
held a year later the farmers emerged 
from the contest with forty-five repre¬ 
sentatives, much the largest group. 
In the meantime Hon. T. A. Crerar had 
withdrawn from the Dominion Gov¬ 
ernment on the tariff issue and had 
assumed the leadership of a farmer 
group of seventeen members at the 
Ottawa House. Thus the farmers 
were in politics in earnest. 

Since labor and the farmers had 
worked together pretty closely during 
the election and had much in common, 
an agreement was reached between the 
representatives of these two groups to 
form a government for Ontario. At 
this prospect the urban folk of the 
province appeared to be appalled, but 
the new Prime Minister and his Cab¬ 


inet made such a favorable impression 
wherever they went that dismay soon 
gave way to confidence. The new 
Government buckled down to work, but 
as it enjoyed a bare majority of two, 
the Prime Minister became anxious 
to increase his support and before 
many months began to advocate the 
extension of the new party so as to 
include electors of all walks of life. 
This seemed to many most opportune 
as the party press had unanimously 
assailed the farmers as class-selfish 
and seeking class-domination. But 
actually the Premier’s invitation had 
the effect of bringing him into conflict 
with the United Farmers’ Association 
which was responsible for electing him. 
The energetic secretary of the Associa¬ 
tion attacked his move as a step likely 
to desti*oy the whole Association. 
He argued that to “broaden out” 
would mean the creation of a new 
party organization which in turn would 
require a party fund and soon place 
the party in control of the moneyed 
interests. As a safeguard he advocated 
emphatically the need for retaining the 
class basis of organization, at the same 
time inviting other classes to organize 
on the same basis and cooperate to 
form a group government in which 
there would be no oflBcial opposition 
but where all groups would have cabi¬ 
net representation* in proportion to 
their elected strength. 

While this controversy was raging, 
each side egged on by the party press, 
a Dominion general election was held 
from which sixty-five farmer candidates 
emerged victorious. Of this number 
many are known to be favorable to 
the idea of “broadening out” and 
forming a party along the old lines. 
The stumbling block is that they wish 
to retain the association machinery 
for election purposes and to this, of 
course, the Association would not sub¬ 
mit. At the time of writing a Pro- 


The Agrakian Movement 


I 


253 


vincial General Election is looming up 
on the horizon, but the matter of or¬ 
ganization remains still unsettled. In 
the face of a common foe it seems likely 
that differences which have existed 
far more in the press than in leaders’ 
minds will to a large extent disap¬ 
pear. 

Concrete Results 

During all these years of activity 
some concrete results have been at¬ 
tained, as respects the individual 
farmer, that deserve attention. In 
these we see the justification of the 
effort expended. The farmer has dis¬ 
covered his latent power, and as a 
class farmers have become an organized 
force to be reckoned with. The exer¬ 
cise of that power has given to the 
farmer a self-respect not generally 
known before and has won regard for 
him from other classes. He has formed 


a habit of enquiry, of study, and of 
public discussion that has immensely 
elevated his standard of intelligence. 
Through this study and through the 
conduct of his commercial company 
he has acquired a wide knowledge of 
business in all its departments. The 
clubs have revived a form of social 
life for many years almost extinct in 
rural districts, and the power of parti¬ 
san, political organization has been 
completely broken. 

Thus matters stand today. In spite 
of all that may be said to the contrary 
there is evidence that the United 
Farmers’ Organizations, though per¬ 
haps slightly weaker in point of mem¬ 
bership than a year or two ago, are 
more powerful in the best sense than 
at any former time. That they will 
change in form there can be no doubt; 
that they will disappear seems alto¬ 
gether improbable. 


Protection of Workers in Industry 

By Marion Findlay, B.A. 

Department of Labour, Toronto 


P ROTECTIVE labour legislation 
is a necessity of our industrial 
system. \Miile a great deal has been 
done through the individual efforts 
of employers to improve the physical 
conditions of employment, and while 
organised labour has made advances 
in this direction, it is inevitable that 
governmental regulations should pro¬ 
vide certain protection for the general 
body of workers. If labour is by far 
the most important of all national 
resources it may be readily conceived 
that the conservation of such an asset 
is properly the duty of governments. 
In Canada the protection of workers 
by law involves legislation competent 
to the provincial legislatures, except 
in so far as Dominion works and under¬ 
takings are concerned. A considera¬ 
tion, therefore, of some of the major 
labour laws of the provinces will 
indicate to what extent they have 
provided protection for workers suf¬ 
ficient to ensure industrial efliciencv 

V 

and social welfare. 

In Canada there has been a demand 
not only for improved labour laws but 
for uniform protection for all workers 
in the Dominion by the unification 
of existing laws. The National In¬ 
dustrial Conference which was held in 
Ottawa, September, 1919, considered 
the question of unifying and coordinat¬ 
ing provincial legislation relating to the 
welfare of those engaged in industrial 
work. A Dominion-Provincial Com¬ 
mission was appointed to study the 
matter carefully and make recom¬ 
mendations to the Federal Minister 
of Labour. The four subjects which 
received the first attention of the 
commission were the inspection and 


regulation of factories, shops and oflSce 
buildings, regulation of mines, work¬ 
men’s compensation and minimum 
wage regulations. After a great deal 
of deliberation recommendations were 
made for the unification of these laws 
in accordance with certain standards, 
and a resolution adopted that mini¬ 
mum wage laws for women and girls 
should be passed by all the provinces. 
The tendency of labour legislation 
enacted since has been towards stabili¬ 
sation and uniformity but in many 
points the laws do not conform to the 
standard set by the report of the com¬ 
mission. 

Factory Acts 

Protection of employees in factories 
is one of the earliest forms of labour 
legislation. The first Factory Act 
in the Dominion was passed by the 
Ontario Legislature in 1884. With 
the exception of Prince Edward Island, 
which is not primarily a manufacturing 
centre, the other provinces as they 
expanded industrially realised the fact 
that “special provision should be made 
for the safety, health and well-being of 
operatives employed in and about 
factories and like places” and passed 
acts providing for the inspection and 
regulation of factories. Many im¬ 
provements to the original acts have 
been embodied in various amendments, 
and factory inspectors have been ap¬ 
pointed for the purpose of safeguarding 
the interest of the workers by enforcing 
the provisions of these acts. Certain 
sanitary regulations protect the health 
of workers and detailed rules as to the 
guarding of dangerous machinery, ele- 
. vators, hoists, installation of equip- 


Protection of Workers in Industry 


255 


ment to reduce fire hazards assure 
their general safety. 

The employment of women and 
young persons where their health is 
likely to be injured is prohibited by all 
the provinces 'but Quebec, which, 
however, forbids by an Order-in-Coun- 
cil the employment of boys under 
sixteen and girls under eighteen years 
of age in industries in which lead, 
mercury, phosphorus and arsenic 
are manufactured or used. Two prov¬ 
inces, Alberta and Ontario, forbid the 
taking of food into a room where any 
poisonous substance is exposed and 
provide that drinking water in any 
such room shall be taken directly from 
taps or closed receptacles. In all 
provinces women and young persons 
must be allowed at least one hour 
for a mid-day meal, but such hour 
is not to be counted as a part of the 
working time. Provision must be 
made also for proper ventilation, rooms 
must be kept clean and overcrowding 
is forbidden. 

The hours of work for women and 
girls allowed by the various Factory 
Acts vary from ten hours per day and 
sixty hours per week in three provinces 
to eight hours per day and forty-eight 
hours per week in two provinces, and 
in seven permits may be issued for 
overtime on thirty-six days or six weeks 
in one year. In no case are women 
and girls allowed to be employed in a 
factory or workshop before six a.m. nor 
later than eleven p.m. The most 
favourable evening hour after which 
they may not work is set by one prov¬ 
ince at eight o’clock. 

Child Minimum Age 

All the Factory Acts but that of New 
Brunswick state a minimum age of 
admission of children to employment 
which is not less than fourteen, al¬ 
though British Columbia and Nova 
Scotia make certain exceptions whereby 


children under fourteen may be em¬ 
ployed for limited periods in certain 
seasonal work connected with fish and 
fruit canning. The School Attendance 
Acts of most of the provinces place 
a general restriction on the employ¬ 
ment of children of school age during 
school hours—^for example, in Ontario 
the minimum age of employment is 
fourteen aecording to the Factory Act, 
but the Adolescent School Attendance 
Act requires children between fourteen 
and sixteen years of age to obtain work 
certificates before seeking employment. 

Mining Acts 

In like manner the Mining Acts pro¬ 
vide for the inspection and regulations 
of mines, making certain requirements 
regarding the internal arrangement of 
mines for the protection of miners 
against the peculiar dangers to which 
they are subject. New Brunswick 
and Prince Edward Island are the only 
provinces without such legislation. 
The employment of women and girls 
in the work of the mines is prohibited 
in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, 
Quebec, and the coal mines of British 
Columbia. All the Mining Acts but 
that of Manitoba fix a minimum age 
of employment of boys in mines. This 
age is highest in Ontario, where the 
minimum is placed at sixteen years for 
boys working above ground and eight¬ 
een for boys working below ground. 
In Nova Scotia no boy under twelve 
may do any work about the mines 
and in the metalliferous mines of 
British Columbia no boy under twelve 
may be employed below ground. In 
the former province, however, the 
Education Act prohibits the employ¬ 
ment of children under sixteen unless 
they hold school certificates. 

According to the Acts of the other 
provinces the minimum age varies 
from fourteen to sixteen. The Mines 
Act of Manitoba makes no provision 


256 


The Annals of the American Academy 


on this subject, but the Children’s 
Act prohibits the employment of 
children under sixteen years of age 
in dangerous or unwholesome occupa¬ 
tions. All the provinces have made 
rules in regard to age and certain 
qualifications for persons in charge of 
hoisting machinery. The eight-hour 
day is required by the Act of British 
Columbia for all mine workers; in 
Ontario and Alberta for all under¬ 
ground workers; in Quebec for boys 
under seventeen working underground 
and the law of Nova Scotia allows 
a ten-hour day for l)oys under sixteen. 

The Acts of British Columbia and 
Nova Scotia require the inspector to 
visit each mine and every part of it 
at least once a month, but the acts of 
the other provinces do not contain 
any clause as to frequency of inspec¬ 
tion. The Act of Quebec is the only 
one which makes no definite provision 
for adequate ventilation in mines. A 
certain measure of protection for the 
health of employees in mining camps 
is provided in all provinces by the 
Public Health Act. 

WorivMen’s Compensation Acts 

All the provinces of Canada but 
Prince Edward Island have Workmen’s 
Compensation laws now in force. In 
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, 
Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Bruns¬ 
wick the collective liability system 
with exclusive state funds has super¬ 
seded the older form of legislation of 
the Enployers’ Liability Acts, but in 
Saskatchewan and Quebec the em¬ 
ployers are held responsible and in case 
of accident damages are recovered 
from them through action in the courts. 

In each of the former six ])rovinces 
a Workmen’s Compensation Board 
of three members has been established 
to administer the funds to which all 
employers coming under the Act con¬ 
tribute. The provisions of the acts 


vary considerably as to the industries 
covered, classes of workers included 
and the amount of compensation al¬ 
lowed. All the acts enumerate the 
industries to which the law applies and 
in no case are agriculture and domestic 
service included. These industries are 
divided into classes according to the 
hazard of the employment and the 
employers in the various classes are 
made collectively, not individually, 
liable for payment of benefits by an 
assessment the rates of which are 
uniform within each group but vary 
with the class. 

This system of merit rating acts as 
an incentive to accident prevention, 
since those employers in whose estab¬ 
lishment relatively few accidents occur 
pay a smaller premium. Certain em¬ 
ployers, such as railway and navigation 
companies, are upon the individual 
liability basis. The six provinces hav¬ 
ing a system of state insurance provide 
compensation for injury due to certain 
industrial diseases, and the provision 
of medical service in connection with 
industrial accidents and diseases has 
been added to other compensation. 

No uniform scale of compensation 
in the case of death or injury has been 
adopted yet by the provinces. In the 
six having a system of state insurance 
definite amounts varying from thirty 
to forty dollars per month are payable 
to the widows with a certain allowance 
for each child of from seven dollars 
and fifty cents to ten dollars within 
certain limits. In Ontario, Nova Sco-^ 
tia and Manitoba the Acts provide for 
the increase of the allowance for each 
child to fifteen dollars, in Alberta to 
twelve dollars and fifty cents and in 
British Columbia to twelve dollars 
per month in the event of the widow’s 
death. 

For permanent total disability On¬ 
tario and Manitoba allow compensa¬ 
tion of sixty-six and two-thirds per 


Protection of Workers in Industry 


257 


cent of average earnings of the work¬ 
men, the other four provinces allowing 
fifty-five per cent, but there are certain 
restrictions on the amount of wages 
that may be taken into consideration 
in calculating average earnings. By 
the Act of Quebec the sum of four 
years’ wages of the deceased workman 
is allowed the widow with a maximum 
of three thousand dollars and a mini¬ 
mum of fifteen hundred dollars, and 
in Saskatchewan a sum equal to three 
years’ wages with a maximum of 
twenty-five hundred and a minimum 
of two thousand dollars. Similar com¬ 
pensations are paid to employees in 
the two provinces for permanent total 
disability. 

The amounts of compensation for 
partial disability vary greatly but the 
majority of the provinces pay a stated 
percentage of the diminution of earning 
capacity within certain limits. The 
Acts of Alberta and Ontario provide 
that a suitable foster mother taking 
the place of a parent may receive the 
same amount of compensation as a 
widow would receive. 

In the six provinces the Workmen’s 
Compensation Board may order first- 
aid appliances to be installed. British 
Columbia and Alberta authorise the 
Board to issue regulations for the 
purpose of preventing accidents and 
diseases. By the Acts of Ontario, Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick this author¬ 
ity is delegated to employers’ associa¬ 
tions and regulations thus issued are 
binding on employers of the same class. 

In 1921 an arrangement was made 
between the provincial governments of 
Quebec and Ontario whereby workers 
residing in Quebec and employed in 
Ontario will no longer be discriminated 
against in the application of the Work¬ 
men’s Compensation Act. In the 
event of accident they will be entitled 
to compensation from the province 
in which they are employed. 


Minimum Wage 

The demand for protection of women 
and girls in industry with respect to 
wages has resulted in Minimum Wage 
legislation in seven provinces of the 
Dominion; namely, Alberta, British 
Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Sas¬ 
katchewan, Quebec and Nova Scotia. 
The Acts of Quebec and Nova Scotia 
are as yet inoperative. In all these 
provinces the Acts are administered by 
Minimum Wage Boards, excepting in 
Quebec where a commission of three is 
to be empowered with its administra¬ 
tion. In forming these boards it has 
been the intention of each province 
to provide a responsible body of men 
and women representative of the inter¬ 
ests involved, and authority has been 
given them to investigate occupations 
and industries at their discretion. 
The minimum scales for female workers 
are fixed with reference to the necessary 
cost of living rather than the ability 
of the industry to pay, and the juris- 
dietion of the boards extends to hours 
and conditions of labour in industries 
concerned, excepting in Quebec, where 
the law refers to wages only. Special 
provision is made for handicapped 
workers and all provinces have pro¬ 
vided a penalty as a means of securing 
the enforcement of awards. 

The application of the law is more 
or less restricted in all the provinces, 
and the special Miners’ Minimum 
Wage Act of British Columbia is the 
only Act extending this protection to 
men. According to the annual reports 
of these boards the result of Minimum 
Wage legislation has been a general 
improvement in the standard of wages, 
hours and working conditions and not 
a tendency for the minimum to be¬ 
come the maximum. 

Mothers’ Allowances Acts 

The Provincial Mothers’ Allowances 
Acts, while they do not provide direct 


18 


258 


The Annals of the American Academy 


protection for industrial workers, have 
an evident bearing on the subject and 
are of special interest to labour. These 
Acts have been formed in the interests 
of the children for whom proper care 
in the home has been made possible. 
The allowance is considered in each 
case as a salary from the Government 
to an otherwise needy mother for 
services rendered to the state in the 
proper care of her children. As an 
employee of the state she is expected to 
measure up to certain standards set 
for such guardians. These Acts are 
in operation in the four western prov¬ 
inces and in Ontario, and have been 
subjected to continuous review in 
order that they might meet as far as 
possible the need of the present day. 

By the Ontario Act as amended the 
allowance may be paid towards the 
support of dependent children of a 
mother who is a widow; whose husband 
is in an asylum; whose husband is 
permanently disabled; whose husband 
has deserted his family, and has not 
been heard of for five years, presumed 
to be dead. A proper foster mother 
may also receive an allowance and the 
board may use its discretion in the 
case of others not strictly under the 
Act. 

Recipients are required to be British 
subjects, resident three years in the 
Dominion, and two years in the prov¬ 
ince, and proper guardians for the 
children. The age of a dependent 
child is under sixteen in accordance 
with the Adolescent School Attendance 
Act, and only mothers with two or 
more children or one child and another 
dependent and incapacitated member 
of the family are entitled to assistance. 
A commission of five people, two of 
whom are women, has been appointed 
for the purpose of this Act. The 
provincial government pays the whole 
cost of this commission and all other 
administrative expenses, so that the 


fifty per cent of the cost of allowances, 
which is contributed by the municipali¬ 
ties, is paid to beneficiaries. By an 
amendment of 1921 the commission 
is authorised to enter into reciprocal 
arrangements with other provinces 
regarding the payment of allowances. 

The provisions of qualifications of 
the acts in the other provinces are 
broadly the same except that in British 
Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatche¬ 
wan mothers whose husbands are in 
penal institutions are included and in 
British Columbia deserted wives are 
qualified. Like Ontario these prov¬ 
inces state the age of dependent chil¬ 
dren as under sixteen, except in Al¬ 
berta where fifteen is the age in the 
case of boys only. Three years is the 
longest time of residence required by 
any province. In British Columbia 
The Workmen’s Compensation Board 
regulates the administration of the 
Act, in Manitoba a commission of 
five, in x41berta the Superintendent 
of Neglected and Dependent Children 
appointed under the Children’s Pro¬ 
tection Act of Alberta, and in Saskatch¬ 
ewan the Bureau of Child Protection. 

In Nova Scotia a commission was 
appointed in 1919 to enquire inter alia 
into the practicability of a scheme for 
Mothers’ Allowances. This commis¬ 
sion has since unanimously reeom- 
mended the passing of a Mothers’ 
Allowances Act, the proposed terms of 
which are similar to the ehief terms 
of the acts of the other provinces. 

Women and Children—Employment 

As the amount of protection afforded 
by means of collective bargaining to 
women and young persons, who need 
it most, is almost negligible, it is 
natural that the tendency of protective 
labour legislation in Canada, as in 
other countries, should be to apply in 
a greater measure to_ them. In the 
case of children the state acts in loco 


Protection of Workers in Industry 


259 


parentis and in tlie case of women 
workers it takes cognizance of the fact 
that they are physically weaker than 
men and that injury to the health of 
numbers of them would be a matter 
of public importance. The fact of 
special protection has been illustrated 
in the provisions of the Factory, Min¬ 
ing and Minimum Wage Acts and may 
be noted in other provincial laws. 

The legislature of British Columbia, 
having regard to the draft conventions 
of the First International Labour Con¬ 
ference, enacted a series of measures 
in 1921, with the provision that they 
should come into operation concur¬ 
rently with or after the coming into 
operation in other provinces of similar 
laws. These laws prohibit the em¬ 
ployment of women and young persons 
between eight p.m. and seven a.m., 
set the minimum age of admission of 
children to employment at fourteen 
years and provide for an eight-hour 
day and a forty-eight-hour week in 
industrial undertakings. 

Special Protection Afforded 
Women and Girls 

The Maternity Protection Act of 
British Columbia was passed forbid¬ 
ding the employment of women in any 
industrial or commercial undertaking 
during the six weeks following her 
confinement and permits her on pro¬ 
duction of the necessary medical cer¬ 
tificate to leave her work six weeks 
previous to the probable date of con¬ 
finement. Employers are forbidden 
to dismiss employees so absenting 
themselves from work. This Act be¬ 
came operative January, 1922, and 
provides for the carrying out of the 
draft convention in all respects except 
in so far as maternity benefits are 
concerned. 

The Female Employment Act of 
Saskatchewan prohibits the employ¬ 
ment of a white woman or girl in any 


capacity requiring her to reside or 
lodge in or to work in any restaurant 
or laundry without obtaining a special 
license for the purpose. In Ontario 
a subsection of the Factory Act states 
that no Chinese person may employ 
in any capacity or have under his direc¬ 
tion or control any female white person 
in any factory, restaurant or laundry, 
but the proclamation naming the date 
on which this section shall come into 
force has not yet been issued. This 
is the case with the Act of Manitoba 
and in British Columbia a similar law 
is enforced. With the exception of 
Quebec all the provinces grant by 
legislation to married women the right 
to wages and earnings acquired through 
employment. 

Protection of Children 

By legislation similar to the Chil¬ 
dren’s Protection Act in Ontario, 
which prohibits girls under sixteen and 
boys under twelve from engaging in 
any street trade, Alberta, Manitoba, 
Saskatchewan and Quebec exercise 
a certain control over children in such 
occupations. By an amendment of 
1922 to the Ontario Act, street trades 
for children are forbidden between 
the hours of ten p.m. and six a.m. Six 
of the provinces allow parents or 
guardians to bind a youth with his 
consent as an apprentice according 
to certain terms, and three provinces 
provide for the rights of minors over 
a stated age to contract for service. 
By the laws of all the provinces but 
Nova Scotia a minor may sue for 
wages within certain limits as if he 
were of full age. 

In addition to this negative protec¬ 
tion, that is to the prohibition of long 
hours, night work, employment of 
children under a stated age and in 
dangerous occupations, a certain posi¬ 
tive protection has been provided by 
the Provincial School Attendance Acts, 


260 


The Annals of the American Academy 


which makes school attendance com¬ 
pulsory imtil a stated age. The state¬ 
ment has been made that “The best 
child-labour law is a compulsory educa¬ 
tion law covering forty weeks in the 
year and requiring the consecutive 
attendance of all children to the age 
of fourteen years.” 

The Acts of Ontario require full 
attendance from the ages of eight to 
sixteen, but make certain exceptions 
for children from fourteen to sixteen 
who may be allowed home permits or 
work certificates when necessary. For 
children holding such permits a part- 
time course of instruction of four hun¬ 
dred hours per year is necessary. This 
clause has not been fully carried out 
because of lack of accommodation, and 
the clause requiring part-time courses 
of instruction of three hundred and 
twenty hours per year for adolescents 
between sixteen and eighteen, does 
not become effective until September, 
1923. 

In Manitoba the age is placed at 
fourteen and in the other three western 
provinces at fifteen unless a stated 
grade has been reached. The Maritime 
Provinces require school attendance 
till thirteen years of age with certain 
exceptions, and in Nova Scotia the 
employment of children under sixteen 
is prohibited unless they hold school 
certificates. 

Provision for Technical Education 

The Technical Education Act, passed 
by the Federal Government in* 1919, 
authorises the payment of money 
grants to the provincial governments 
on certain conditions for the purpose 
of promoting technical education in 
Canada. The sum allotted to each is 
in no case to exceed the amount thus 
expended by such province. Under 
this Act provision has been made in all 
the provinces for technical education. 
When fully developed a proper and 


adequate system of technical and vo¬ 
cational education will contribute ma¬ 
terially toward the solution of many 
problems in industry. 

Hours of Labour and Wages 

With respect to protection of workers 
in the matter of hours of labour in 
industrial undertakings it has been 
observed that the Factory and Mini¬ 
mum Wage Acts restrict the number of 
hours during which women and young 
persons may be employed. The ad¬ 
ministrative orders of the Minimum 
Wage Board of some of the provinces 
have limited to eight hours the working 
day of female employees in various 
establishments which have come under 
their jurisdiction. In Nova Scotia an 
eight-hour day has been established 
for young persons under sixteen in 
factories and for girls under sixteen 
and boys under fourteen in shops. In 
British Columbia the laws respecting 
an eight-hour day in factories apply 
to women and girls. 

Restriction by law in the matter 
of hours of labour for men is confined 
usually to those occupations which 
are peculiarly hazardous or which in- 
volv^e the element of public safety, such 
as transportation. In British Colum¬ 
bia the working day for miners is 
limited to eight hours. This is the 
case in Ontario and Alberta for under¬ 
ground workers in mines and in Quebec 
for boys under seventeen working 
underground. In Manitoba the Fair 
Wage Board established by the Act 
of 1916 has provided an eight-hour day 
for certain occupations on public 
works. The British Columbia Hours 
of Work Act of 1921 provides for an 
eight-hour day in all industrial under¬ 
takings, but the Act is to come into 
force concurrently with or after the 
enactment of similar legislation in the 
other provinces. In addition to legis- , 
lation on this matter the eight-hour 


Protection of Workers in Industry 


261 


day has become the rule for large 
numbers of workers through collective 
agreements and trade practices. Sta¬ 
tistics obtained in 1919 from firms em¬ 
ploying approximately one half of the 
total number of persons employed 
in industry in Canada indicate that 
about forty-seven per cent work an 
average of eight hours per day or less. 

Early Closing Hours 

Most of the provinces provide for 
early closing by-laws for shops and 
the closing of shops on certain days. 
In Ontario the Fire Departments Hours 
of Labour Act requires one whole day 
off duty for firemen regularly employed 
and where the two platoon system is 
in operation the twenty-four-hour re¬ 
lease at the change of platoons shall 
not be regarded as a day off duty. 
By the Two Platoon Act of 1921 towns 
and cities of ten thousand population 
and over are required to operate the 
two platoon system. Following this 
plan firemen work alternate twenty- 
four hours or a ten-hour day and a 
fourteen-hour night shift to alternate 
once a week. No deduction of pay 
or holiday shall be allowed by reason 
of the provisions of this Act. 

Wage Regulations 

Minimum wages are being set for 
female workers in industry in the five 
provinces having active systems of 
minimum wage regulations. All the 
provinces provide general protection 
for workers in the matter of wages 
under the various Lien Acts and have 
Acts in force similar to the Wages 
Act of Ontario. In the case of as¬ 
signment or liquidation this Act de¬ 
clares that wages not to exceed the 
wages of two months due any person 
employed at the time or one month 
previous thereto, shall be paid in 
priority to claims of general creditors. 
In Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba 


and Quebec directors of companies are 
liable to employees of the company 
for debts due for services performed 
while they were directors, providing 
that the company is sued within a year 
after the debt is due and the directors 
sued within a year after they ceased 
to be directors. Certain limits as to 
the amount which may be thus col¬ 
lected have been set by these provinces. 

The Master and Servants Acts of 
Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia 
and Saskatchewan provide for prose¬ 
cution on charge of non-payment of 
wages. The majority of the provinces 
give some measure of protection in the 
matter of wages on public and sub¬ 
sidised works. Under the Fair Wage 
Act of Manitoba, 1916, a board com¬ 
posed of both employers and employees 
has been appointed to advise the Min¬ 
ister of Public Works in the matter of 
minimum wages and maximum hours 
of labour on public works. 

Safety 

In the matter of the safety of work¬ 
ers, the Factory and Mining Acts 
aim to prevent hazard in industry by 
requiring that dangerous machinery 
be guarded, precautions against fire 
be taken and that elevators and hoists 
be properly installed. The majority 
of the provinces safeguard employees 
and the general public by providing 
for the licensing of engineers operating 
steam plants and by regulating the 
construction and inspection of steam 
boilers. Interprovincial regulations re¬ 
specting the construction of steam 
boilers have been adopted by the 
western provinces and Ontario. 

In order to give a certain amount of 
protection to electrical workers, On¬ 
tario has authorised the Hydro Electric 
Commission to guard in every way 
possible the safety of the employees 
connected with its works. The laws 
of Manitoba and Quebec provide for 


262 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the licensing of electricians, Saskatche¬ 
wan authorises the Lieutenant Gov¬ 
ernor in Council, and Alberta the 
Workmen’s Compensation Board to 
make such regulations as are deemed 
necessary and practicable for the pro¬ 
tection of electrical workers. By the 
law of British Columbia an inspector 
is charged with this duty. All the 
provinces but Prince Edward Island 
require moving picture machine op¬ 
erators to be licensed. 

In British Columbia and Manitoba 
operators of passenger elevators must 
be licensed. British Columbia states 
eighteen as minimum age of operator, 
and Manitoba sixteen. Under the 
Factory Acts of the other provinces, 
excepting Prince Edward Island, cer¬ 
tain regulations as to construction and 
operation are made and in Ontario the 
minimum age of eighteen is stated for 
operators on elevators in factories, 
shops and office buildings. By the 
Municipal Act of Ontario the munic¬ 
ipalities are given the authority to 
license elevator operators. 

All the provinces require chauffeurs 
to be licensed. Holders of such li¬ 
censes must be eighteen years of age in 
all the provinces except British Co¬ 
lumbia, which states seventeen, and 
fifteen to seventeen with permit. On¬ 
tario and Saskatchewan also issue 
licenses to drivers of sixteen to eight¬ 
een who have passed certain examina¬ 
tions. 

For the protection of employees on 
buildings, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba 
and Saskatchewan have passed Build¬ 
ing Trades Protection Acts, making 
certain regulations to be complied 
with in the erection, alteration, repair 
or demolition of every building. Que¬ 
bec has a similar act applying to cities 
and towns as well as an act requiring 
the inspection of scaffolding. In addi¬ 
tion to the precautions against fire 
required by the Factory Acts, Ontario, 


British Columbia and New Brunswick 
make further provision necessary by 
fire prevention acts. 

Employment Service of Canada 

The Employment Offices Coordi¬ 
nation Act passed by the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment in 1918 provides for the estab¬ 
lishment of a national employment 
service. The Employment Service 
Council of Canada has been created to 
advise the Minister of Labour on the ad¬ 
ministration of the Act, and to recom¬ 
mend ways and means of preventing 
unemployment. A public employment 
service has been developed in Ontario, 
Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, 
British Columbia, New Brunswick, 
Nova Scotia, and Quebec, with a total 
of seventy-six offices and eight clearing 
houses. Under the terms of the Act 
the Federal Department of Labour has 
assumed the responsibility for a certain 
proportion of the expenses of the 
service, but each province retains 
complete autonomy so far as the 
offices within its boundaries are con¬ 
cerned. Ontario, Alberta and Sas¬ 
katchewan have established provincial 
Employment Service Councils which 
cooperate with the Employment Serv¬ 
ice Council of Canada, and in Manitoba 
the Industrial Conference Board func¬ 
tions as the Provincial Advisory Coun¬ 
cil to the Employment Service. 

In five provinces employment offices 
charging fees have been abolished. 
Ontario and Quebec allow certain 
specified agencies to operate under 
license and government supervision 
but according to the agreement en¬ 
tered into by the Federal and Pro¬ 
vincial Departments of Labour under 
the Coordination Act the provinces 

“shall not issue any new provincial 
licenses to commercial employment agencies 
which charge any fee or commission either 
to employers or employees and shall not 
transfer any license already issued.” 


Protection of Workers in Industry ^63 


In the establishment of the Employ¬ 
ment Service of Canada, the Dominion 
has met the principal object of the 
draft convention concerning unemploy¬ 
ment. 

Increasing Conception of Duty of 
State Towards Its Citizens 

From this summary of provincial 
labour legislation in Canada it is 
evident that complete uniformity has 
not yet been accomplished and that the 
laws do not meet in all respects the 
requirements of the draft conventions 
and recommendations of the First 
International Labour Conference. If, 
however, one might apprehend the 
trend of events, the volume and im¬ 
portance of protective legislation, both 
in new acts and amendments passed 
by the provinces in the last five years, 
would indicate an increasing conception 
on the part of the state of its duty 
toward its citizens. 

In addition to legislation framed for 
the purpose of providing adequate 
protection for workers in industry 
some form of scientific management, 
some means of improving industrial re¬ 
lations and gaining cooperation be¬ 
tween management and employees 
are essential in order to help solve the 
problem of industrial unrest with its 
ill effects on the workers themselves 
and on production. The organised 
effort represented by labour legislation 
is not sufficient. It must be supple¬ 
mented by the efforts of employers, 
employees and their respective or¬ 
ganizations. 

Group Insurance 

One form of industrial service de¬ 
veloped recently in Canada is that of 
group life insurance. Employers who 
have adopted this scheme during the 
difficult years since 1919 regard it as an 
important factor in stabilising labour 
and improving the general attitude 


of employees to their work which re¬ 
sults in increased production. A sys¬ 
tem of group insurance may be adopted 
by an employer for purely business 
reasons, in order to reduce the cost 
of migratory labour, or he may con¬ 
sider it a means of meeting an economic 
responsibility he feels towards his 
employees. Whatever the impelling 
motive the benefits may be shared by 
both management and employees. It 
is not possible to measure exactly the 
influence of any one phase of employ¬ 
ment management methods in improv¬ 
ing industrial relations, but the fact 
that the volume of protection extended 
to workers through group life insurance 
has increased yearly since 1919 when 
it was first written in Canada would 
indicate that it performs a valuable 
service in this direction. 

Section eighty-three of the Federal 
Insurance Act, 1917, states in part 
that 

No such life insurance company shall 
make or permit any distinction or dis¬ 
crimination in favour of individuals be¬ 
tween the insured of the same class and 
equal expectation of life in the amount or 
premiums charged or in the dividends 
payable on the policy. 

This section precluded the writing 
of group insurance in Canada until 
companies agreed to make the group 
premium rate for the individual avail¬ 
able also to the individual applying 
for insurance apart from the group. 
In 1919 the companies consented to 
meet this condition so that now every 
company writing group insurance is 
required to issue individual insurance 
on the same plan at the group rate. 

Increase 

Insurance firms in the United States 
have been writing group insurance 
since 1912, so that branches of such 
companies in Canada were naturally 


264 


The Annals of the American Academy 


the first to write it here. The gross 
amount effected in 1919 totalled nearly 
eleven and a half million dollars cover¬ 
ing eighty-six policies, and five of these 
were written by a Canadian company. 
The greatest increase in business was 
in 1920 when the number of new poli¬ 
cies was three hundred and one, 
amounting to about sixty-six and a half 
million dollars. By the end of 1921 
group insurance to the value of over 
eighty-eight and a half million dollars 
had been effected in Canada and thirty- 
nine million of this covered policies 
written by Canadian companies. Re¬ 
turns for 1922 are not complete yet 
but indicate that this gross amount 
has been increased to over a hundred 
million dollars. 

Purpose 

The purpose of group life insurance 
is to provide employers means of in¬ 
suring their employees on a basis of 
cost. Automatic coverage of all persons 
of the group concerned is effected under 
one blanket policy, and it is necessary 
that a group be composed of at least 
fifty persons. Group insurance is usu¬ 
ally written under a formula deter¬ 
mined by the conditions surrounding 
employment, the hazards involved and 
age distribution,—in other words the 
assurability of the group as a whole. 
In thus precluding individual selection 
medical examinations become unneces¬ 
sary, the fact that an employee is in 
active service being taken as evidence 
of fairly good physical condition. 

Amounts of Insurance 

The minimum amount of insurance 
granted to each individual is five hun¬ 
dred dollars and the maximum usually 
three thousand dollars although some 
companies allow larger sums under 
certain conditions. There are several 
formulae which may be followed in 
determining the amount of insurance 


for each employee. The plan may 
provide a uniform amount for all in 
the group or the amount may be based 
on wages or length of continued service. 
Under the latter scheme an employer 
is given an opportunity of rewarding 
faithful workers, especially if the 
formula is made retroactive. A typical 
policy of this kind might start with 
five hundred dollars or one thousand 
dollars after three months of service 
and increase one hundred dollars per 
year until a stated maximum had been 
reached. The period between the 
five hundred dollar and the one thou¬ 
sand dollar amounts is often shortened, 
and larger yearly increases by which 
the maximum is reached in a shorter 
time are popular with many concerns.- 
An equitable and satisfactory plan 
for oflfice staffs is to have the amount for 
the individual equal his yearly salary 
and this amount is adjusted as the 
salary increases. Some firms provide 
the same amount of coverage, usually 
one thousand dollars, for all employees, 
and the plan of one thousand dollars 
for single and two thousand dollars 
for married employees regardless of 
service and rank has been adopted in 
a few instances. Many variations 
of these schemes are permitted, but 
in all cases where varying amounts 
are awarded the discrimination must 
be between classes, not between in¬ 
dividuals. 

Provisions for Payments 

A certificate of insurance bearing the 
name of the beneficiary and the amount 
of insurance is issued to each person 
in the group but the contract is be¬ 
tween the employer and the insurance 
company. In the case of death from 
any cause of the employee covered 
the contract provides for the immediate 
payment either in one sum or in 
monthly instalments of the amount 
of the insurance to the beneficiary. 


Protection of Workers in Industry 


265 


Provision is usually made for the pay¬ 
ment to the insured should he become 
permanently and totally disabled be¬ 
fore reaching the age of sixty. 

One-Year Renewable Term 

Group insurance is written upon 
the one-year renewable term plan. 
The cost is in accordance with a definite 
scale of rates and increases for the 
individual each year because of in¬ 
creasing age, but the general experience 
is that the rate for the whole group 
remains practically constant because 
of new and younger workers being 
added to the group. The rates are 
greatly reduced since the expense to 
the insurance firm of medical exam¬ 
ination, of individual solicitations and 
collection of premiums has been elim¬ 
inated. Nine or ten dollars per one 
thousand dollars of insurance is an 
average yearly premium or about one 
per cent of the payroll. In the great 
majority of cases this premium is 
paid in full by the employers. The 
contract provides for terminations and 
additions to the insurance on the pro 
rata rating basis and also for the con¬ 
version privilege whereby an employee 
leaving the service can within a stated 
time convert the insurance to a regular 
policy at the regular rate for his at¬ 
tained age and without any medical 
examination. The conversion privi¬ 
lege is valuable mainly because a 
medical examination is not necessary 
and because many a workman will 
convert his policy who would not in¬ 
vest in a new policy. 

Popularity for Group Life 

Group sickness and disability in¬ 
surance is sold less extensively in 
Canada than group life. One reason 
for this may be that a part of the field 
has been covered already by the com¬ 
pensation payable for industrial ac¬ 
cidents and diseases under the Work¬ 


men’s Compensation Acts. Moreover, 
such policies involve a larger premium 
outlay. When combined with group 
life insurance in order to give complete 
protection it is customary for the 
employees to contribute towards the 
premiums under the disability con¬ 
tract. This system has the advantage 
of placing a certain amount of responsi¬ 
bility upon the employees, thus tending 
to develop greater interest and coopera¬ 
tion. 

Harmonious Relations 

Individual life insurance is expensive 
for the average wage-earner, and his 
chances of accumulating sufficient sav¬ 
ings to provide for his family’s future 
are small. The guarantee that a 
certain definite provision will be made 
for his family in the event of his death, 
not as a matter of charity but as a 
benefit rightly belonging to his employ¬ 
ment, such a guarantee will be a strong 
inducement for him to remain with 
his firm. The mental effect of this 
relief from anxiety for the future re¬ 
sults in greater efficiency and makes for 
harmonious relations between employer 
and employed. 

With the exception of the matter of 
wages, almost any method of improving 
conditions for workers, which is not 
required by law nor a definite necessity 
of the industry, is open to adverse 
criticism. In the case of group in¬ 
surance the chief objection has been 
that such a system is paternalistic, that 
it is offered as a bribe to workers to hold 
them and as a substitute for proper 
wages. If, however, the amount of 
premium outlay were applied to the 
wages of workers, the increase thus 
gained would amount to about one per 
cent only. A spirit of cooperation 
can be developed through a system 
of group insurance which could far 
outrank any feeling of paternalism, 
and this indication that an employer 


266 


The Annals of the American Academy 


desires continued service from his 
workers arouses a feeling of confidence 
and permanency productive of satis¬ 
factory work. 

Group life insurance is but one of 
several cooperative benefit plans and 
it cannot be advocated as a cure-all 
for industrial unrest. It is, however, 
another evidence that the human as¬ 
pect of industry is receiving considera¬ 
tion. It is a form of protection em¬ 


ployers may provide for their employ¬ 
ees at cost and which the employees 
are not able to provide for themselves 
at a similar rate. If group insurance 
is made a supplement for low wages 
it will not gain the good-will of the 
workers, but as a fair recognition of 
the interdependence between employer 
and employee, it may do much to stim¬ 
ulate the cooperative spirit in indus¬ 
try. 


The Returned Soldier 

By The Honorable H. S. Beland, P.C., M.D., M.P. 

Minister of Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment, Ottawa 


T he last Canadian census prior 
to the outbreak of war, taken in 
1911, showed a male population ^ be¬ 
tween 18 and 45 years of age, of 1,720,- 
070, divided as follows: Between 18 
and 30, 980,150; between 31 and 40, 
543,163; between 41 and 45, 196,757. 

The enlistments from Canada in 
the Canadian Expeditionary Force 
and in the Allied Armies, numbered 
610,031, of whom 432,642 proceeded 
overseas. At enlistment probably 100,- 
000 were, through the cessation of 
railway extension, out of regular em¬ 
ployment, and 10,000 were minors 
under the age of 18 years, who had 
followed previously no regular occupa¬ 
tion. The withdrawal from active 
industry of the balance of half a million 
men created during the war a very 
serious problem and resulted in the re¬ 
organization of almost every industry, 
the employment of female help and 
the consequent closing of opportunities 
for male employment. The gravity 
of the situation was increased and the 
problem made more difficult by the 
length of time many of the men were 
on active service. It will therefore 
be seen that the reabsorption and re¬ 
establishment of so large a proportion 
of the male population of Canada was 
no easy task. It is true that the Do¬ 
minion possesses almost unrivalled 
natural resources but the returned 
soldier, after years of military service, 
could not be expected at once to re¬ 
adapt himself to peace conditions nor 
could he live on those natural resources. 

Employment for the Returned 
Soldier 

Within one year of the commence¬ 
ment of hostilities, invalids were re¬ 


turning from overseas and others, 
found unfit for military service, were 
being discharged from camp. The 
latter usually returned to their previous 
occupation while the former required 
a longer or shorter term of hospitaliza¬ 
tion. In the autumn of 1915 arrange¬ 
ments were made with each of the 
provincial governments which result¬ 
ed in the formation of commissions 
charged with the duty in each province 
of seeking employment for men re¬ 
turning from overseas as soon as they 
were fit to work. The personnel of 
these commissions usually included a 
member of the provincial government, 
a manufacturer, a commercial man, 
a representative of labor and an agri¬ 
culturist. During the three years, 
prior to the Armistice, thousands of 
men were reestablished through the 
agency of these commissions, very 
close cooperation existing during this 
period between them and the Federal 
Government. In June, 1916, a sys¬ 
tem of Vocational Training was estab¬ 
lished to which reference will be made 
later. 

After the Armistice 

The greatest pressure commenced 
shortly after the Armistice. Immedi¬ 
ately this event took place the Govern¬ 
ment, through the Department of 
Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment pre¬ 
pared a questionnaire which was 
dispatched overseas. The object was 
to collect complete information from 
all members of the Canadian Ex¬ 
peditionary Force as to their intention 
regarding employment on their return 
to Canada, so that adequate plans 
might be made for their rapid absorp¬ 
tion as civilians into the national life 


267 


268 


The Annals of the American Academy 


of the country. The forms were 
distributed from Ypres to the Vosges 
Mountains, from the Rhine to the 
English Channel and throughout Eng¬ 
land and Scotland. They were com¬ 
pleted and dispatched to Ottawa, with 
such speed that by the 31st March, 
1919, information with respect to 
every man, comprising his regimental 
number, rank, unit, whether married 
or single, age, place of residence in 
Canada, dispersal area selected for 
discharge, occupation prior to enlist¬ 
ment, occupation desired on demob¬ 
ilization, past experience in that 
occupation and various other items, 
was available and was circulated 
throughout twenty-two dispersal 
areas. 

In addition to the securing of this 
information an active campaign in 
France and England was conducted 
for the purpose of informing the troops 
about to be demobilized, as to the 
various benefits provided by the Gov¬ 
ernment in their behalf. Lectures 
were delivered, pamphlets distributed, 
advertising carried in newspapers and 
periodicals circulating among the troops 
and moving picture displays were 
given. A representative of the De¬ 
partment of Soldiers’ Civil Reestablish¬ 
ment travelled from England on every 
transport and delivered lectures daily 
to the men during the voyage. 

Free government employment offices 
were established in 89 towns and 
cities and an official, whose duty it 
was to deal with all demobilized soldiers 
seeking employment, was placed in 
every office. Through his instrumen¬ 
tality, preference for returned soldiers 
was secured and an active campaign 
was carried on by a special branch of 
the department among employers of 
labor generally. In the working out 
of this policy labor scouts were en¬ 
gaged to visit, at stated intervals, the 
principal industrial establishments so 


as to keep in touch with vacancies as 
they occurred. 

Success of Employment Bureau 

An analysis of the demobilization 
questionnaires which were completed 
by 273,544 men, showed that about 
20 per cent did not desire to return to 
their pre-war occupations. The fol¬ 
lowing statement {See p. 269) indi¬ 
cates the main occupational divisions 
previously followed and subsequently 
chosen: 

Of the 273,544 men referred to, 
100,755, or 36 per cent, were over the 
age of 30, while 27,629 were over the 
age of 40. The success attending the 
operation of this employment service 
is indicated in the attached chart. 
It will be seen that the number of 
positions obtained greatly exceeded 
the net number of men making ap¬ 
plication. In many cases several po¬ 
sitions had to be found before a man 
was finally placed; for instance, 22,336 
men were placed twice, while 231 were 
found ten or more positions. In one 
case the department succeeded in 
placing a man 29 times before he was 
finally reestablished. 

War Service Gratuity 

Immediately after the Armistice the 
Government provided for the payment 
of a special War Service Gratuity 
to all men who had served, based on 
the length of service. The amount 
paid to a private who had three years’ 
service, a part of which was overseas, 
was $70 per month, if without de¬ 
pendents, and $100 per month if with 
dependents, payments being continued 
for six months. For lesser periods of 
service payments were made for less 
than six months. 

In addition to the large number of 
men who returned without physical 
impairment many were disabled by 
wounds, injury or disease. Others, 


The Returned Soldier 


269 


Statement of Occupations Followed Prior to Enlistment and Those Proposed to be Fol¬ 
lowed Subsequent to Discharge, Based on 273,544 Demobilization Questionnaires 


Occupation 

Loss TO 

Other 

Occupations 

No Change 
IN Occu¬ 
pation 

Gain from 
Other 
Occupations 

Number 

Previously 

Following 

Occupation 

Number 
Proposing 
TO Follow 
Occupation 

Agriculture and stock raising 

4,716 

67,502 

20,269 

72,218 

87,771 

Building and construction. . 

3,256 

18,647 

1,255 

21,903 

19,902 

Civil and municipal govern- 



ment. 

1,045 

2,931 

1,024 

3,976 

3,955 

Domestic and personal serv¬ 
ices, communication and 




transportation. 

7,508 

21,532 

3,981 

29,040 

25,513 

Hunting and fishing, for¬ 
estry and lumber manu- 




facturing. 

1,969 

4,410 

488 

6,379 

4,898 

Clothing manufacturing . . . 

739 

2,538 

217 

3,277 

2,755 

Food. 

1,564 

3,312 

378 

4,876 

3,690 

Mechanics.. 

10,234 

19,439 

3,232 

29,673 

22,671 

Textile, chemical and gen- 





eral trades. 

2,534 

6,793 

606 

9,327 

7,399 

Mining. 

1,860 

5,486 

549 

7,346 

6,035 

Professional and general . . . 
Trade, merchandising and 

12,708 

55,986 

20,409 

68,694 

76,395 

banking. 

5,757 

11,078 

1,483 

16,835 

12,560 

Total. 

53,890 

219,654 

53,890 

273,544 

273,544 


who though fit in a military sense at 
the time of enlistment were not patho¬ 
logically fit, and these suffered an ag¬ 
gravation of pre-war disabilities due 
to the stress of military service, or 
there was a natural progression during 
service. Those who required medical 
treatment were provided for in hos¬ 
pitals specially organized or in existing 
institutions throughout Canada. When 
medical treatment had reached a 
finality further assistance was granted 
in three ways: (1) by vocational 
training, (2) by pension, and (3) by 
insurance. 

Vocational Training 

After the close of every previous 
war disabled soldiers had been allowed 
to fend for themselves and no attempt 
was made, except on an insignificant 
scale, to salve the war wastage among 


those suffering severe disabilities and 
handicaps. As early as 1915 certain 
patriotic Frenchmen commenced Vo¬ 
cational Training schools in France, 
supported largely by public and private 
philanthropy, and a good work was 
achieved, but nothing upon a com¬ 
prehensive and national scale was 
undertaken until the Government of 
Canada led the way. Two plans pre¬ 
sented themselves: (1) To train in 
highly skilled trades, taking from one 
to three years or possibly more, or, 
(2) to build upon the foundation of 
the pre-war occupation by teaching 
some fighter occupation closely allied 
to it. 

The second method was adopted as 
a general principle in Canada. For 
instance, if a man had been a printer 
and had an amputation of the leg, he 
was if possible trained to operate a 

































270 


The Annals of the American Academy 


linotype or monotype machine. If 
he had been a house carpenter and 
was so wounded that he could not climb 
over a building, he was taught cabinet- 
making. Those who received training 
ranged in age all the way from youths 
under 18 to men of 55 and over—there 
were 252 of the latter—in education 
from the illiterate to the university 
student; industrially, from the lowest 
grade railway laborer to the highly 
skilled mechanic. The number of 
occupations in which training was 
given was 421; 83.9 per cent of the 
trainees had received no further educa¬ 
tion than that given in the public 
school; 13.2 per cent had attended 
high school; 1.5 per a university and 
1.4 per cent a business college; 55.1 
per cent were single or widowers and 
44.9 per cent were married. 

Industrial Survey 

In order to determine the best 
method of training, a careful survey 
was made of industrial opportunities 
and many hundreds of manufacturing 
plants were investigated so as to select 
occupations suitable for men with spec¬ 
ified disabilities, to ascertain the atti¬ 
tude of manufacturers and employers 
of labor to disabled soldiers, and to 
educate them toward a proper under¬ 
standing and appreciation of the prob¬ 
lem. It was thus possible for the men 
in charge of the work to find an opening 
suitable to the man applying for train¬ 
ing. Up to the 18th November, 1922, 
42,568 men had graduated, of whom 
8,335 were minors who were granted 
courses of training not because of a 
disability but because they enlisted 
when under the military age of 18 and 
suffered a serious interruption of their 
training or education. 

To ensure the ultimate value of the 
training given a follow-up system was 
introduced and continued until it was 
demonstrated that the trainee was in 


a position to earn regular wages. 
The final disposition showed that 65.6 
per cent of the men trained continued 
in the occupation for which they were 
trained, 25.9 per cent were employed 
otherwise and the balance were lost 
sight of or had died. 

Pensions 

When a man enlisted he was sup¬ 
posed to have a healthy person. On his 
discharge the state charged itself with 
the duty of compensating him for any 
detriment he might have undergone 
during his period of service. The in¬ 
tention of a pension is to ensure decent 
comfort to its recipients. The Ca¬ 
nadian practice took no account of 
former training or social status in 
determining pensionability. Further, 
in order to encourage industry and 
adaptability, it was provided that no 
deduction should be made from the 
amount awarded to any pensioner 
owing to his having undertaken work 
or perfected himself in some form of 
industry. It was realized that if a 
pension granted were subject to re¬ 
duction because the recipient had 
secured remunerative work, a premium 
would be put on shiftlessness and in¬ 
difference. Owing to the increase in 
cost of living and the recognized in¬ 
adequacy of pre-war pensions, various 
increases in the amount of pension for 
total disability, upon which all.degrees 
of pension are based, have been made 
effective from time to time. Under 
pre-war regulations pension for total 
disability was $264 per annum. This 
was increased by a Committee of 
Parliament which sat in 1916, to $480. 
It was subsequentl;y^ increased to $600, 
which is still the basic rate. There is, 
however, a cost of living bonus added, 
of 50 per cent, making the total dis¬ 
ability pension for ranks below captain, 
$900 per annum. In case of helpless¬ 
ness, requiring constant attendance. 


The Returned Soldier 


271 


a further amount up to $750 per annum 
may be added. A widow’s pension is 
$720 per annum. Additional pensions 
are paid in respect of children of 
widows and of total disability pen¬ 
sioners, $180 per annum for the first 
child, $144 for the second, and $120 
for the third and subsequent children. 
The pension standard is the earning 
power of a healthy male in the open 
labor market. 

Insurance 

Owing to the fact that a man who 
had suffered impairment during his 
war service was debarred from ob¬ 
taining life insurance at ordinary rates 
or from obtaining insurance in a line 
company at all, an act known as the 
Returned Soldiers’ Insurance Act was 
passed in 1920, providing for govern¬ 
ment insurance at low rates for any 
man who had served in the Canadian 
Forces, one feature being that no 
medical examination was required. 
In view of the number of death-bed 
insurances it has since been necessary 
to impose certain restrictions. The 
principal object of this insurance was 
to enable a man to make provision for 
his widow and dependents, as even 
though he might die from a service 
disability the widow is not pensionable 
unless marriage took place before the 
appearance of the injury or disease. 

A further class of insurance was 
made applicable from September, 1921, 
under which the Government assumed 
responsibility for accidents in the case 
of workmen engaged in factories, etc., 
where such accident imposes liability 
on an employer. The benefits are 
restricted to those who are in receipt 
of a pension of 20 per cent and upwards. 
This legislation was considered neces¬ 
sary, as employers hesitated to engage 
men with a war disability owing to 
the cumulative effect when an accident 
occurred, as no deduction is made by 


Workmen’s Compensation Boards in 
respect of the previous condition; for 
example, a man who lost an eye in 
service and a second eye in industry 
would be entitled to compensation 
from an employer for total blindness. 
The present law places all pensioners 
within the classes named in a preferred 
position. 

Land Settlement 

Another measure, which has made 
for the rehabilitation of a large number 
of men, is the Soldier Settlement Act, 
under which assistance is given to 
eligible and qualified returned soldiers 
who desire to settle on farms in Canada. 
Every man must have sufficient capital 
to pay down 10 per cent of the purchase 
price, also to maintain his family until 
the next harvest and to buy feed and 
seed. Loans up to $4,500 for the 
purchase of land, $2,000 for live stock, 
and $1,000 for erection of buildings, 
etc., may be made to those purchasing 
land through the Soldier Settlement 
Board; to settlers on Dominion lands 
loans up to $3,000 may be made, and 
those who own agricultural land, but 
require money for development, may 
borrow up to $5,000. Provision is 
included in the Act for the amortiza¬ 
tion of loan and interest repayments 
and assistance is rendered to settlers 
in the purchase of equipment, etc. 

Relief 

During the winter of 1919-20, it 
was apparent that a measure of unem¬ 
ployment relief would be required for 
the assistance of men who had failed 
to settle themselves after discharge. 
This work was carried out by coopera¬ 
tion . with the Canadian Patriotic 
Fund and resulted in tiding over a 
number of men who were not able to 
secure employment or who having 
secured it were unable to hold it. To 
a lesser extent it has been necessary 


272 


The Annals of the American Academy 


to assist vocational graduates and 
pensioners who have become unem¬ 
ployed, down to the present time. 
The Department of Soldiers’ Civil 
Reestablishment has also operated . 
workshops where handicapped men 
can obtain light employment in the 
manufacture of articles which are 
readily saleable. It is probable that 
this work will be carried on perma¬ 
nently through the cooperation of a 
non-governmental organization. 

• From the foregoing summary it will 


be apparent that very energetic meas¬ 
ures have been taken to rehabilitate 
and reestablish the men who served 
in the Canadian Forces during the 
late war. While some aspects of 
the problem still remain, and will do so 
for many years to come, by far the 
larger majority have been reestablished 
and, as soon as normal conditions 
prevail in industry, trade and com¬ 
merce, the balance, apart from the 
sick and mentally deficient, will have 
become absorbed. 


The Returned Soldier 


273 



19 






































































































































DEPARTMENT or SOLDIERS' CIVIL RE-ESTABLISHMENT 

CHART SHOWING 

NUMBER OF MEN IN TRAINING 

BY QUARTERS FROM AUGUST 1917 TD OCTOBER 1922 


274 


The Annals of the American Academy 




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Divorce in Canada 

By THE Hon. Mr. Justice A. Rives Hall 
P uisne Judge of the Court of King’s Bench for the Province of Quebec, Montreal 




REVIEW of the question of di¬ 
vorce in the Dominion of Canada 
must necessarily be prefaced by a brief 
indication of English law and practice, 
for, although the British North America 
Act has empowered the Federal Parlia¬ 
ment to make laws concerning marriage 
and divorce, that authority has never 
been invoked for any general law, and 
the only substantive law applied to 
such cases, either in the Provincial 
Divorce Courts, or before the Senate 
Committee, is the English law. 

The Common Law of England, 
which follows in this case the Canon 
Law of the Church, 

deemed so highly and with such mysterious 
reverence of the nuptial tie that the causes 
of divorce are purposely limited to a few 
extreme and specific provocations {Black- 
stone* s Commentaries). 

The consideration of such cases origi¬ 
nally came within the exclusive juris¬ 
diction of the Ecclesiastical Courts, 
which could first decree a divorce a 
mensa et thoro, a judicial separation, 
which did not, however, dissolve the 
marriage tie; or, secondly, pronounce a 
sentence of nullity, declaring that the 
show or form of marriage had between 
the parties was null and void from the 
beginning—that no legal tie ever ex¬ 
isted. The Ecclesiastical Courts, how¬ 
ever, had no authority to dissolve a 
marriage good in itself, whatever might 
be the delinquency of the parties. The 
sentences pronounced were improperly 
termed sentences of divorce a vinculo 
matrimonii, for in the cases to which 
alone such sentences were applicable, 
there was in fact, in the eye of the law, 
no legal vinculum or binding tie of any 
kind. 


Strictly speaking, therefore, there 
was no absolute divorce; by the law of 
England the contract of marriage was 
indissoluble, and when once it had been 
constituted in a legal manner there 
were no means of putting an end to it 
in any of the courts. Nevertheless the 
actual dissolution of such a contract, 
when adultery had been committed, 
was so consonant to reason and religion, 
that where the general law failed to 
give a remedy. Parliament stepped in 
to provide one specially by passing a 
particular law in favour of those who 
could make out a case which would 
warrant its interference. 

Two conditions were in general 
necessary to satisfy Parliament: 

First a divorce a mensa et thoro had to 
be obtained from the Ecclesiastical 
Court. Second, an action for damages 
had to be brought against the adulterer 
in the Civil Court for criminal conver¬ 
sation. The latter was not absolutely 
necessary, and appears to have been 
regarded as a safeguard against divorce 
being granted to persons who had con¬ 
nived at the acts of adultery, or had 
themselves been guilty of misconduct 
in the marriage state. • By this charac¬ 
teristic evasion, the law of England 
completely changed its practice while 
still maintaining its ancient theory of 
divorce. Probably the anomalous 
character of the remedy might have 
brought about a change but for the 
great practical evil of the expense at¬ 
tending the proceedings. Three suits 
—ecclesiastical, civil, and parliamen¬ 
tary—were necessary. Divorce be¬ 
came a remedy for the rich. The poor 
were driven to bigamy. Yet it was 
not until 1857—and then not without 



275 



276 


The Annals of the American Academy 


determined resistance—that this dis¬ 
graceful state of things was changed by 
the passing of the Act under which was 
established the Court of Divorce and 
Matrimonial Causes, the proceedings 
before which have now, with few ex¬ 
ceptions, the same object and result as 
the former proceedings in Parliament 
and in the Civil and Ecclesiastical 
Courts. The action for damages for 
crim. con. is represented by the adul¬ 
terer being made a party to the hus¬ 
band’s suit. Full divorce is granted 
on the principles usually recognized by 
the House of Lords; and the other 
remedies are such as might formerly 
have been granted by the Ecclesiastical 
Court. 

It is to be noted that, while the wife’s 
adultery is a sufficient cause for di¬ 
vorce, the husband’s transgression 
must be aggravated by other offences: 
incest, cruelty or desertion. 

First Reform Act 

The Divorce and Matrimonial 
Causes Act was undoubtedly a great 
and necessary reform, for as between 
the desirability of divorce by Special 
Act of Parliament or by petition to a 
judge, the opinion of those who have 
had an opportunity of studying both 
methods is entirely in favour of the 
latter. The enunciation of certain 
definite grounds upon which a decree 
would be pronounced was a still further 
improvement. But that Act, it was 
soon noted, fell far short of an en¬ 
lightened modern view of what a 
reasonable law of divorce should be. 
So long ago as 1896 it was declared that 
the English law of divorce and separa¬ 
tion was in the highest degree un¬ 
satisfactory. 

It is full of inconsistencies, anomalies and 
inequalities amounting almost to absurdi¬ 
ties; and it does not produce desirable 
results in certain important respects. 


Equality of Sexes 

The question of still further reform 
was, therefore, submitted to a repre¬ 
sentative commission, which, after a 
prolonged and careful study, presented 
its report towards the end of the year. 
1912, the majority recommending ex¬ 
tensive reform. 

The outstanding feature of this 
report was the demand for an absolute 
equality of the sexes, the placing of men 
and women on an equal footing with 
regard to grounds for divorce, which 
were extended to include: adultery, 
wilful desertion, cruelty, incurable in¬ 
sanity, habitual drunkenness, and com¬ 
muted death sentence. 

Under the jurisprudence that had 
been developed under the Act, “cru¬ 
elty” was given a very narrow inter¬ 
pretation; it had to be such cruelty as 
resulted in bodily injury. The com¬ 
mission suggested that cruelty suffi¬ 
cient, even without adultery, to justify 
divorce 

should be such conduct by one married 
person to the other as makes it unsafe, 
having regard to risk of life, limb or health, 
bodily or mental, for the latter to continue 
to live with the former. 

This epoch-making report was the 
subject of wide discussion, and re¬ 
ceived a fairly general approval; and 
had the Great War not supervened 
within the short period of eighteen 
months it is not unlikely that the 
English law of divorce would long be¬ 
fore this have been brought into accord 
with modern ideas. Nothing having 
been done, it is still condemned by the 
most competent authorities as immoral 
and unjust. Lord Buckmaster, in a 
recent communication to The Times 
(October 11, 1922) gave specific in¬ 
stances of the anomalies and abuses 
that still prevail. The wife of an in¬ 
sane murderer remains his wife. He is 



Divorce in Canada 


277 


incarcerated in a criminal asylum 
without prospect of release. She is 
told by the Courts that she is a married 
woman, and even in such circum¬ 
stances must remain irrevocably mar¬ 
ried in the sight of the law; and the 
social world, with expressions of pity, 
shuts its eyes to the consequences. 
Infection by syphilis is no ground for 
divorce. Bigamy, which is extremely 
common, is not sufficient ground for 
divorce, it must be “bigamy with 
adultery”; and 

although it might be assumed anywhere 
outside of a law court, that a man who has 
risked penal servitude to obtain possession 
of a woman, was not prompted by platonic 
love, yet the law requires independent 
proof of adultery. 

Lord Buckmaster’s letter made a 
profound impression, and there is 
evidently a remarkable modification of 
opinion among religious leaders, in¬ 
cluding even some dignitaries of the 
Anglican Church, which has heretofore 
set its face sternly against the remar¬ 
riage of even the innocent parties in 
divorce proceedings. 

This law of divorce with all its 
anomalies, inequalities and injustice, is 
the only substantive law that exists in 
Canada. It is applied in all the prov¬ 
inces except Ontario and Quebec. The 
only grounds for divorce are those 
provided by the English Act. It 
speaks well, therefore, for the morality 
of our fellow-citizens that the short¬ 
comings of our law should not, as yet, 
have brought about the conditions that 
are so much deplored in England. 

Part Senate Plays 

The jurisdiction of the provincial 
courts is, however, supplemented by 
the Parliamentary Divorce granted by 
the Senate at Ottawa, to which the 
residents of Ontario and Quebec have 
access as well, and as Parliament has 


enacted no substantive law, has not 
enumerated any special grounds for 
divorce, the Senate has asserted the 
right of examining each case on its 
merits, and, while giving every con¬ 
sideration to the English jurisprudence, 
holds itself entitled to bring to bear on 
the question modern ideas and stand¬ 
ards. Parliament is not, therefore, 
bound by the narrow limits of the 
English law, and does recognise other 
grounds of divorce than those estab¬ 
lished by the Divorce and Matrimonial 
Causes Act. There are, therefore, in 
Canada, two jurisdictions, two sets of 
tribunals, before which questions of 
divorce may be brought. 

Jurisdiction of Provinces 

The British North America Act, 
1867, conferred upon the Parliament of 
Canada the power to make laws for 
the peace, order and good government 
of Canada in relation to marriage and 
divorce, and the provincial tribunals 
in certain provinces are still permitted 
to continue a jurisdiction in matters of 
divorce which was conferred upon 
them prior to Confederation, or, in the 
case of provinces admitted later, ac¬ 
quired by the general terms of their 
charters. 

In the first category are found the 
provinces of Nova Scotia, New Bruns¬ 
wick and Prince Edward Island, all of 
which had, by their provincial legisla¬ 
tures, established courts of marriage 
and divorce. British Columbia stands 
in * a somewhat different position, in 
that, while no special court was estab¬ 
lished, jurisdiction has been assumed 
by the Supreme Court of the province 
under the Ordinance that enacted that 
the civil and criminal laws of England 
as the same existed on the 19th No¬ 
vember, 1858, should be in force in all 
parts of the province. 

This was affirmed in the case of 
S. vs. S. (1. B. C. L. R., p. 23), and 


278 


The Annals of the American Academy 


while there was in that case the weighty 
dissenting opinion of the Chief Justice 
(Sir Matthew Begbie) the Court has 
since repeatedly followed the prece¬ 
dent. 

The Privy Council later gave the 
seal of its approval to this ruling and 
declared that the Supreme Court of 
British Columbia has jurisdiction to 
entertain a petition for divorce be¬ 
tween persons domiciled in that colony 
in respect of matrimonial offences 
alleged to have been committed there¬ 
in {Watts vs. Watts, A. C. 1908, p. 
573). 

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Al¬ 
berta, as part of the old Northwest 
Territory, enjoyed the laws of England 
as they stood on the 15th July, 1870, 
and, therefore, they had the English 
law of divorce, under the Divorce and 
Matrimonial Causes Act 1857. 

It is interesting to note, however, 
that for many years this right was 
ignored, petitions for Parliamentary 
Divorce were frequently presented, 
and it was not until the year 1919 that 
the jurisdiction of the provincial courts 
was finally admitted. In that year 
two cases were pleaded before the 
Privy Council, one from Manitoba 
{Walker vs. Walker, A. C. 1919, p. 947); 
the other from Alberta {Board vs. 
Board, A. C. 1919, p. 956). In the 
Manitoba case. Lord Haldane said: 

The Divorce Act of 1857 did much more 
than set up a new court and regulate its 
procedure. It introduced new substantive 
law, and gave to the court it constituted 
not only the jurisdiction over matrimonial 
questions, which the old Ecclesiastical 
Tribunal possessed, but a new jurisdiction 
arising out of the principle, then for the 
first time introduced into the law of Eng¬ 
land, of the right to divorce a vinculo matri¬ 
monii for certain matrimonial offences. 
This right had been made part of the law of 
England before July 15,1870, and it became 
part of the substantive law of Manitoba. 


Quebec and Ontario 

The provinces of Quebec and On¬ 
tario are, therefore, the only parts of 
Canada that have no divorce other 
than the Parliamentary Divorce 
granted by the Federal Parliament. 
At the time Upper Canada, now On¬ 
tario, adopted the English law relative 
to property and civil rights, in 1792, 
no power to dissolve marriage was 
vested in the courts in England, and 
the provincial legislature never con¬ 
ferred it, although the provincial 
courts are competent to deal with the 
validity of a marriage contract on the 
ground of its being a civil contract, and, 
in cases of fraud, mistake, duress and 
lunacy, declare it void. 

In the province of Quebec marriage 
is declared indissoluble, and, while the 
provincial courts have jurisdiction to 
annul a marriage for impotency exist¬ 
ing at the time of the marriage, and for 
causes that would invalidate any civil 
contract, there is no jurisdiction for 
divorce. The right of either consort' 
to sue for separation from bed and 
board, corresponding to the divorce 
a mensa et thoro of the English Ecclesi¬ 
astical Courts is well recognised. In 
the text of the Code, and under the 
earlier jurisprudence, a wife might de¬ 
mand separation on the ground of the 
husband’s adultery only when he kept 
his concubine in the common habita¬ 
tion, but in modern practice a less 
biased view is taken, and as the hus¬ 
band’s misconduct in certain circum¬ 
stances is interpreted as outrage, ill 
usage or grievous insult, separation 
may be granted on that score. 

While the provinces that have fol¬ 
lowed the English law have their own 
courts for the hearing of applications 
for divorce, it is generally recognised 
that they may, with the provinces of 
Quebec and Ontario, avail themselves 
of the wider advantages of a petition 


Divorce in Canada 


279 


to the Senate at Ottawa. The pro¬ 
cedure followed in what is known as 
“Parliamentary Divorce” has been 
adapted from that which prevailed in 
England prior to 1858. 

Parliamentary Divorce in Canada 
AND England 

It is to be noted, however, that 
Parliamentary Divorce in Canada is a 
very different thing from the Parlia¬ 
mentary Divorce that was formerly 
applied in England. The Parliament 
of the United Kingdom never did, and 
without changing the law or making a 
law for the purpose, it could not divorce 
a husband and wife a vinculo matri¬ 
monii unless they had been previously 
divorced a mensa et thoro by the Civil 
or Ecclesiastical Court, and unless the 
petitioner had obtained a verdict and 
judgment for damages in a separate 
action against the paramour. This 
decree, verdict and judgment had to be 
filed with the petition to the King, and 
they were an essential and indispensa¬ 
ble part of the record. In this way the 
King and House of Lords had before 
them the previous findings of two 
competent courts upon the precise 
offences which were essential to the 
petition for a divorce. Even this, 
however, was not conclusive, for each 
petition was referred to a Committee 
of the House of Lords, who reinvesti¬ 
gated and scrutinised the facts and 
previous evidence of record to see that 
there was no collusion, nor anything to 
deprive the petitioner of the right 
which he sought. 

Policy of Senate 

The Senate has followed the example 
of the House of Lords in appointing a 
committee to investigate the facts, but 
it has entirely dispensed with the other 
essential—that of the record of a prior 
suit before a competent court. The 
assumption of jurisdiction, therefore. 


by the Senate of Canada under the 
British North America Act, has been 
criticised as a usurpation, it being con¬ 
tended that the passing of an individual 
act is not the adoption of a law. The 
authority of the Parliament of Canada 
in reference to divorce is confined to 
making a general law for the peace and 
order and good government of Canada, 
and it has been argued that dissolving 
marriage contracts one by one is not 
making a law, more particularly as 
there is no law available to the Domin¬ 
ion of Canada or the Parliament of 
Canada upon which it can act, or pro¬ 
ceed to thus break the civil contract of 
marriage. Whether or no this be too 
narrow and strict an interpretation. 
Parliament has administered divorce 
since Confederation and, although it is 
undoubtedly eminently desirable that 
some general law of divorce should be 
adopted, there is little probability of 
the present jurisdiction being abro¬ 
gated or curtailed until some general 
law had been introduced. 

The late Senator Gowan, referring 
to this question of Parliamentary 
Divorce, said: 

Whatever differences of opinion may ex¬ 
ist on the subject of divorce, all will agree 
that the law which permits separation be¬ 
tween man and wife—the dissolution of a 
sacred life tie—should be administered by 
a known and safe method, the causes of dis¬ 
solution supported by reliable evidence, 
severely, calmly and discretely tested, and 
the enquiry conducted with some regard to 
legal form. 

Federal Divorce Law 

While it is apparent, therefore, that 
there is an urgent need in Canada for a 
general law of divorce, the reluctance 
of the Federal Parliament to draft 
legislation is explained by the opposi¬ 
tion of the province of Quebec to any 
formal recognition of divorce. Under 
the present system, however, the resi- 


280 


The Annals of the American Academy 


dents of Quebec, whether Catholic or 
Protestant, are free to take advantage 
of the provisions for a Parliamentary 
Divorce, and the Ecclesiastical au¬ 
thorities can restrain such action only 
by their spiritual authority. The 
Church is fully within its rights in ex¬ 
ercising its authority over its own ad¬ 
herents, but that authority should 
not be the cause of depriving other 
citizens of an opportunity to secure 
release, in simpl^e and effective manner, 
from ties which are irksome and dis¬ 
honouring. 

The late Sir George Cartier, in ex¬ 
plaining the matter, said that at the 
time of the formation of the Confedera¬ 
tion, the question of divorce had been 
left purposely to be decided by the 
Federal Parliament, which had a 
Protestant majority, and taken away 
from the Legislature of Quebec, the 
majority of which were Catholic, be¬ 
cause it was against the creed and con¬ 
science of Catholics to vote for divorce 
in any circumstances whatever. This 
was done in order that justice might 
be done to Protestants. The Cath¬ 
olic Bishops of Canada, knowing that 
the inhabitants of Canada formed 
a mixed community, approved of 
this course, and he (Sir George) had 
reason to believe the Holy See did 
so too. (Dom. Pari. DebateSy 1890, p. 
694). 

A Federal law of divorce would not 
deprive the Church of its spiritual au¬ 
thority, and to orthodox and devout 
Catholics a resort to the courts would 
be no more permissible than is now a 
resort to Parliament. 

A Federal law of divorce would, 
therefore, in no sense be an invasion of 
the rights of the Church. The ex¬ 
cessive cost of a Parliamentary Divorce 
deprives the unfortunate poor of a 
right that should be equally available 
to all, and makes divorce a rich man’s 
privilege. 


A Great Detriment 

One of the unfortunate results of this 
condition of affairs is that many per¬ 
sons who find it impossible to secure 
divorce in Canada take advantage of 
the proximity of the United States, 
where many jurisdictions have so lax 
a system that divorce is encouraged 
and made easy. The law of Canada, 
even that of the province of Quebec 
(Mignault 7, p. 551) recognises the 
validity of a divorce secured in a 
foreign jurisdiction when the parties 
have acquired a valid domicile therein, 
but it too often happens that the 
domicile recognised by individual 
states is a mere subterfuge, many di¬ 
vorces are secured by Canadians, the 
validity of which may be seriously 
questioned, and in several cases Parlia¬ 
ment has refused to recognise an 
American divorce as valid and con¬ 
clusive in Canada. 

The laxity of divorce law in many of 
the states of the American Union has 
been widely criticised, and there has 
been, from time to time, in the neigh¬ 
bouring Republic a strong agitation in 
favour of the adoption of a general 
Federal law of divorce, bringing about 
uniformity, a higher respect for matri¬ 
monial obligation, and a stringency 
that would go far to check the tendency 
to early, unconsidered and careless 
marriages. 

The moral and religious aspects of 
this question, although closely allied 
are by no means synonomous, for the 
Church in its reluctance to counte¬ 
nance any dissolution of the marriage 
tie, even in circumstances of flagrant 
wrong, and in its determined refusal to 
countenance the remarriage of divorced 
persons in any circumstances, does 
lend its support to the perpetuation of 
conditions that are regarded, by secu¬ 
lar opinion, as highly immoral. The 
diflSculty of securing divorce, it has 


Divorce in Canada 


281 


been shown, tends greatly to increase 
bigamy and other forms of licentious¬ 
ness; and it is hard to avoid the con¬ 
clusion that the atmosphere engen¬ 
dered by the hate and detestation of 
parents who are “the bondsmen of a 
luckless and helpless matrimony” must 
be seriously detrimental to the charac¬ 
ter of their unfortunate children. 

The evidence of distinguished theo¬ 
logians before the Royal Commission 
on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes in 
1910 shows how wide is the room for 
diversity of opinion, and there is an 


ever growing sentiment that the 
Church will not command the general 
assent of enlightened Christian con¬ 
science if she imposes the same life¬ 
long disability upon persons who, in 
the matrimonial relations, have proved 
themselves to be utterly culpable, and 
also upon other persons who, so far as 
air adducible evidence tells, must be 
held to be altogether innocent. By 
refusing remarriage the Church tacitly 
ignores the innocence*of the injured 
and inflicts injustice on those who have 
suffered wrong. 


The Labour Movement in Canada 

By R. H. Coats 

Dominion Statistician, Ottawa 


C ANADIAN trade unionism began 
in sporadic organization, drawing 
upon the usual inspiration. There 
were “labour circles” in Lower Canada 
prior to 1830, but of their nature and 
proceedings little definite is known. 
The printers and shoemakers of the 
cities of Quebec, Montreal and To¬ 
ronto, following the radical traditions 
of their trades, were among the first 
to organize—in the 1830’s and 1840’s. 
But before 1850 the movement was 
negligible in Canada, and for reasons 
that are suflBciently obvious. Land 
in the old provinces was plentiful; the 
domestic system of production largely 
prevailed; and life was economically 
simple. The social and industrial 
unrest that swept over the United 
States and Europe between 1825 and 
1850 was only faintly felt in Canada. 
Nor had Canada the educated and 
leisure classes whose leadership in 
philosophic radicalism so stimulated 
the labour movement in Great Britain 
during the second quarter of the last 
century. 

Gradual Broadening 

From 1850 on the current broadened. 
There were strikes of printers, moulders 
and shoemakers in Toronto during 
the 1850’s. The seaports, naturally 
in closest touch with the older coun¬ 
tries, developed some vigorous unions. 
Most important of all, the movement 
in the United States began to flow 
over into Canada. In 1869 the “Na¬ 
tional” Typographical Union of the 
United States became the “Interna¬ 
tional” Typographical Union, in token 
of its aflBliation of Canadian local 
lodges. Thus by 1870 the main char¬ 


acteristics of the Canadian labour 
movement were defined, or at least 
foreshadowed, as they have continued 
to the present. These are two-fold: 
the adoption of the forms and mecha¬ 
nism of the trade unionism of the 
United States; whilst the legislative 
programme and many of the ideas 
come from the mother country, whose 
common law prevails over the greater 
part of the Dominion. Quebec, with 
its differences of law and language, 
contributes an element at many points 
distinct. 

It was the winning in Canada of the 
bitter contest just fought out in Eng¬ 
land—that, namely, for the repeal 
of the -Combination laws—that first 
encouraged the Canadian unions to 
attempt a representative national as¬ 
sembly. The year was 1873. The 
Canadian Labour Union, as the new 
central body was named, was sup¬ 
ported by 31 locals, though there were 
some 70 unions in existence by that 
time in Ontario alone. The Trades 
Council of Toronto had assumed the 
lead in calling the convention, but the 
example had been furnished by an 
“Industrial Congress” in the United 
States two months previously and by a 
“National Congress” in Great Britain 
in the year before. The Canadian 
Labour Union, with some initial suc¬ 
cesses to its credit in the way of 
legislation, waned with the bad 
times following the panic of 1873, 
and disappeared entirely three years 
later. 

A Central Labour Body 

In 1883, however, and this time with 
more direct encouragement from the 


282 



283 


The Labour Movement in Canada 


United States, the attempt to form a 
central labour body in Canada was 
repeated, and after 1886 the Trades and 
Labour Congress of Canada became 
a permanent institution, meeting an¬ 
nually and consistently increasing in 
numbers and influence, though it 
ebbed at least once afterwards almost 
to the point of extinction. 

As already indicated, the trade 
unionism of Canada has been largely 
derived in so far as working machinery 
is concerned, from the United States. 
In other words its craft unions are for 
the most part branches of organizations 
having their headquarters in the United 
States. There have been notable ex¬ 
ceptions. The Provincial Workmen’s 
Association of Nova Scotia, founded 
in 1879, ran a long and successful 
career as a purely Canadian organiza¬ 
tion, and there have been at least a 
dozen other instances of purely Ca¬ 
nadian central craft unions. Never¬ 
theless the bulk of the movement has 
always been part and parcel of the 
continental system, and much of the 
interest attaching to it lies in its adap¬ 
tations of means to ends over the inter¬ 
national boundary. It was an interna¬ 
tional union, for example, that drove 
out the Provincial Workmen’s Associa¬ 
tion. 

The Trades and Labour Congress 
itself is essentially a device whereby 
the functions which are performed by 
the American Federation of Labour 
in the United States may be exercised 
in Canada. Again, it was the struggle 
in the rank and file of continental 
trade unionism between the Knights 
of Labour and the American Federa¬ 
tion of Labour which, transferred to 
Canada, led to the formation of the 
Canadian Federation of Labour in 
1903—one of the purely Canadian 
bodies to which reference was made 
above. Numerous other instances 
might be added as illustrating how 


many of the incidents in the history 
of the Canadian labour movement are 
but variations upon the theme of 
internationalism. 

Present Unit of Organization 

With this imperfect reference to 
history, the present outline must turn 
to a brief analysis of the movement in 
its present proportions. Since the 
year 1910 the Department of Labour 
has published a valuable report an¬ 
nually on the labour organizations 
of Canada, and the statistics which 
follow are from the latest of these 
issues. We may begin with the unit 
of organization and build up: 

In 1921 the trade unions of Canada 
consisted of 2,668 local branches having 
a total membership of 313,320. This 
represents a falling off from 1919 and 
1920, which were the high years in 
the movement, but it is approximately 
double the pre-war showing, which 
in turn represented a growth by seven 
times since the beginning of the cen¬ 
tury. By trades, the railway em¬ 
ployees, with 82,000 members, and the 
building trades with over 30,000 mem¬ 
bers, are the largest groups (the largest 
single organization is the United Mine 
Workers with 20,000 Canadian mem¬ 
bers) ; whilst by provinces, Ontario 
with a membership of 66,771, Quebec 
with a membership of 44,057, and 
British Columbia with a membership 
of 16,899, head the list. Montreal 
leads the cities with 191 unions. To- 
ronto standing second with 155, Winni¬ 
peg third with 94, and Vancouver 
fourth with 77. Over thirty cities 
have not less than twenty unions each. 

Next to the local unit in the scheme 
of labour organizations stand various 
federations, trades and labour councils, 
etc., of which Canada has a consider¬ 
able representation. Altogether there 
are in Canada 61 federations of trade 
unions, 42 district councils, and 60 


284 


The Annals of the American Academy 


trades and labour councils. The latter 
play a somewhat unique part in Can¬ 
ada—more aggressive than the similar 
bodies of the United States, and in 
greater harmony with the general 
labour movement than has been 
achieved in Great Britain. 

Of the local unions, 2,223 with a 
membership of 222,896 are interna¬ 
tional. Altogether 98 international 
organizations have established one 
or more local branches in Canada. 
It may be noted, however, that there 
are 140 distinct craft organizations 
operating on the North American 
continent. 

Trades and Labour Congress 

At the apex of the international 
system in Canada stands the Trades 
and Labour Congress, whose func¬ 
tion as daughter or sister body to 
the American Federation of Labour 
has been briefly noted. It may be 
remarked that, just as the American 
Federation of Labour does not repre¬ 
sent all the 140 unions of the continent, 
so in Canada only 84 of the 98 inter-, 
national groups are represented in 
the Congress. In Canada, as in the 
United States, the chief bodies holding 
aloof from the federated system are 
the Railway Brotherhoods, which for 
various reasons prefer to work by 
themselves, z.e., through delegate bod¬ 
ies, “legislative boards,” etc., made up 
entirely from their own membership. 
The Congress, however, is par excel¬ 
lence the Canadian Parliament of 
Labour, and its career, now in its 
thirty-sixth year, may be said to con¬ 
stitute the history of the labour move¬ 
ment in Canada. 

* 

Organizations Formed in Opposition 

An international organization formed 
in opposition to the union on trade 
lines as represented by the Congress 


and the American Federation of Labour 
is the Industrial Workers of the World. 
After a turbulent career it has all but 
disappeared from Canada. Likewise 
in opposition to existing forms of 
labour organization is the “One Big 
Union,” formed in Calgary in 1919, 
whose career reached its climax in 
the most sensational incident in our 
trade union history, the Winnipeg 
strike of 1919. The One Big Union 
is industrial and socialistic, its aim 
being to hasten the day “when pro¬ 
duction for profit shall be replaced by 
production for use.” At the end of 
1919 it numbered 101 branches with 
a membership of 41,150, but this had 
shrunk to 35 branches with 5,300 
members in 1921. 

A Catholic Federation 

There are left the purely national 
trade unions of Canada. Of these 
the Canadian Federation of Labour, 
already briefly mentioned, consists 
of 32 branches with a membership 
of 7,300. A new departure of more 
recent origin is the Federation of 
Catholic Workers of the Province of 
Quebec; as the name would imply, 
membership is confined to adherents 
of the Roman Catholic faith. The 
earliest local union of the kind was 
formed in 1912, but by 1918 the move¬ 
ment had progressed sufficiently to 
warrant a general conference at which 
27 unions were represented. Two 
years later a conference of 225 delegates 
representing 120 unions with a reported 
membership of 40,000 created a perma¬ 
nent organization under the above 
title. Vigorous opposition to organi¬ 
zation on creedal lines has been offered 
by the Trades and Labour Congress 
and the conflict has been aired in 
Parliament. The latest list of the 
Department of Labour shows 120 
unions in affiliation with the Federa¬ 
tion, 


The Labour Movement in Canada 


285 


Relative Strength of Trade 
Unionism 

Trade unionism in Canada is rela¬ 
tively weaker in point of numbers than 
in England. It is weaker also than 
in the United States, a result of the 
preponderance of agriculture in the 
Canadian industrial scheme. But its 
progress in recent years has been very 
rapid, and it is steadily increasing in 
individuality. It furnishes today one 
of the most interesting fields in which 
to study the evolution of Canadian 
institutions under the reaction of 
influences from Great Britain, bound 
to us by the political tie, and from the 
United States, so strong by economic 
position. 

Nowhere is the above more clearly 
illustrated than in the political pro¬ 
gramme of organized labour. In the 
United States the labour movement 
is out of politics. In Canada, on the 
contrary, though action is still to be 
described as tentative, the tendency 
is to follow British example. Labour 
had a representative in the Canadian 
Parliament as long ago as the seventies. 
In 1900 the Trades and Labour Con¬ 
gress pronounced for independent po¬ 
litical action, though it was not until 
1917 that this policy crystallized in 
the organization of the Canadian 
Labour Party. In the last Federal 
election 30 straight labour candidates 
were in the field, with 37 “farmer- 
labour” nominees and one “labour- 
liberal.” Two “labour” and five 
“farmer-labour” members were elected. 
In addition the Trades and Labour 
Congress sought pledges on a series 
of eleven questions from other candi¬ 
dates. Each province has its branch 
of the Labour Party, and there is a 
sprinkling of labour members in pro¬ 
vincial legislatures, Alberta having 
the strongest contingent with four. 


Flexibility of Trade Unionism 

As above stated this is in the British 
rather than in the American tradition. 
Even wider is the gap between the 
American Federation of Labour and 
the Trades and Labour Congress in 
what may be termed international 
politics. Whereas the American Fed¬ 
eration of Labour has somewhat acri¬ 
moniously refused to throw in its lot 
with the newly organized International 
Federation of Trade Unions, which 
took over the affairs of the old Inter¬ 
national Secretariat after the war, 
the Dominion Trades and Labour 
Congress has been a consistent member 
since 1920, basing its action on the 
association of Canada with the British 
Empire and also with the League of 
Nations—a striking instance of the 
flexibility of trade unionism on this 
continent and its capacity to reconcile 
homeogenity of working machinery 
with diversity of corporate aim. 

Socialist Movement 

The Socialist movement lies rather 
outside a sketch like the present, but 
there is a Socialist Party in Canada 
which ran fi^^e candidates at the recent 
election—all unsuccessfully. As al¬ 
ready hinted, socialistic propagandism 
within the ranks of labour reached its 
maximum in the incidents preceding 
the Winnipeg strike of 1919. The 
Winnipeg strike, however, was a strike 
of trade unionists on orthodox lines, 
and the failure of the radical element 
to realize the significance of its initial 
success—or in fact to provide for it— 
revealed conclusively the weakness 
of the Socialist movement and its 
lack of any real hold on labour opin¬ 
ion. Socialism in Canada is essen¬ 
tially a western phenomena and it 
has made no headway with oiEcial 
trade unionism. 



Unemployment and Organization of the Labour 

Market 


By Bryce M. Stewart 

Director, Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Employment Exchange, Chicago; formerly 

Director of the Employment Service of Canada 


I. UNEMPLOYMENT 

NTIL quite recently Canada had 
no statistical measurement of Un¬ 
employment although for a number 
of years the Labour Gazette published 
monthly reports from correspondents 
on the employment situation in their 
localities. It could scarcely be expect¬ 
ed that any official effort at measure¬ 
ment and analysis of unemployment 
should be inaugurated in the unprec¬ 
edented industrial expansion which be¬ 
gan about the first of the century and 
continued, with but slight interruption, 
until 1914. True, in the occasional 
slack times of this period there was 
sharp distress in the larger cities, but 
the responsibility for unemployment 
was generally held to rest upon the 
municipalities in the first instance, in 
the second place upon the provinces, 
and only very remotely—if at all— 
upon the Dominion Government. 

High Water-mark 

In 1913 it was evident that the long 
boom period was over. There was 
much hardship in the winter of 1913- 
14 and it is doubtful if the volume of 
unemployment during the following 
winter has ever been exceeded in the 
history of the country. The spring 
absorption of labour was insignificant 
and in 1915 city dwellers were con¬ 
fronted with the unusual spectacle of 
long queues of men waiting for relief in 
midsummer at the civic charity de¬ 
partments. Delegation after delega¬ 
tion contended that the Dominion 
must accept some responsibility for the 
unemployment arising from the com¬ 


pletion of its railroad building program 
and for the thousands of unemployed 
immigrants admitted by the Federal 
Department of Immigration. It was 
urged also that the further unemploy¬ 
ment involved in the industrial read¬ 
justment after the outbreak of war was 
obviously at the door of the Govern¬ 
ment in Ottawa. The Cabinet, how¬ 
ever, pinned its faith to recruiting and 
munitions orders as correctives of the 
situation and the appointment of an 
unemployment commission, much de¬ 
sired in some quarters, was refused. 

The pressure of unemployment in 
these years stimulated interest in pub¬ 
lic employment offices and employ¬ 
ment statistics and at the end of 1915 
the Labour Department for the first 
time sent a questionnaire to trade 
unions to ascertain what proportion of 
their members were unemployed. The 
same questionnaire was issued in June 
of the next year and quarterly there¬ 
after until 1919, when in anticipation of 
demobilization the enquiry was placed 
on a monthly basis and has so con¬ 
tinued. 

The accompanying table, based on 
these union reports, shows the closer 
application of the labour force year by 
year during the remainder of the war 
period, the post-bellum unemployment 
of the winter of 1918-19, the resump¬ 
tion of activity during the fictitious 
prosperity of 1919-20, and the wasting 
job famine which began in the autumn 
of 1920 and except for some seasonal 
activity in the following summer did 
not abate until the upward trend of 
recent months. 



286 


Unemployment and Organization of the Labour Market 

Percentage of Members Reported Unemployed by Trade Unions 


287 



1916 

1917 

1918 

1919 

1920 

1921 

1922 

January 1. 

8.7 

2.1 

2.4 

2.7 

4.2 

13.1 

15.1 

April 1. 

• • • 

2.1 

1.6 

4.1 

3.1 

16.5 

9.6 

July 1. 

2.1 

1.2 

.5 

3.1 

2.1 

13.2 

5.3 

October 1. 

1.4 

1.7 

.7 

2.5 

13.9 

8.5 

2.8 


A Regular System of Reports 

In 1919 the newly organized Em¬ 
ployment Service instituted a system of 
reports from representative employers 
in every important industry. The 
following table, showing employment 
as reported by employers, is based on 
the number of employees actually at 
work on the reporting date in the es- 


the union membership, would have 
more regular employment than the 
general body of workers covered by the 
employers’ returns. 

In 1919 also the Employment Serv¬ 
ice began to issue statistical reports of 
the applications for employment and 
the demand for labour recorded at its 
75 local offices. These statistics throw 
light on labour turnover rather than 


Employment as Reported by Employers 


(Number of employees on January 17, 1920 = 100) 



1920 

1921 

1922 

January 1. 

100 (Jan. 17) 
100.6 

87.7 

77.9 

February 1. 

90.1 

78.9 

March 1. 

101.2 

88.0 

81.9 

April 1. 

101.7 

84.1 

80.8 

May 1. 

104.6 

84.1 

83.3 ^ 

June 1. 

106.2 

86.6 

89.2 

July 1. 

109.1 

87.5 

91.1 

August 1. 

108.3 

88.9 

93.1 

September 1. 

107.5 

88.7 

93.7 

October 1. ..;. 

108.2 

90.2 

94.6 

November 1. 

104.4 

90.4 

95.8 

December 1. 

100.3 

87.1 

95.1 






tablishments making returns in com¬ 
parison with the working force indi¬ 
cated by the same firms at the middle 
of January, 1920, when the publi¬ 
cation of the returns was begun. 
The figures indicate the same gen¬ 
eral trend as those derived from 
the trade union reports although the 
latter do not show so much fluctu¬ 
ation. It could probably be as¬ 
sumed that skilled tradesmen, who 
constitute such a large proportion of 


employment. They show when, where, 
and in what numbers employers and 
workers come into the labour market 
and the volume of transactions. The 
wage rates—the “high” and “low” of 
the different occupations in the market 
—are also available in the reports for¬ 
warded to Dominion headquarters by 
the local offices, but as yet this in¬ 
formation has been given to the public 
only once.^ 

^ Employment, November 15, 1921, p. 9. 
















































288 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Value of Employment Statistics 

There has been, therefore, a marked 
development in Canadian employment 
statistics in the past few years and the 
official reports on the employment 
situation published in the Labour 
Gazette are now based on the new sta¬ 
tistical data instead of the monthly 
statements from correspondents. As 
Professor Gilbert Jackson says: 

Had we possessed in 1914 the body of 
information which was afterwards collected, 
we should have been able to base on knowl¬ 
edge decisions which rested then on bare 
conjecture. 

While unemployment in the recent 
depression was perhaps as great as in 
1914-15 there was much less hardship. 
Demonstrations of the unemployed 
were noticeably few and poorly pat¬ 
ronized. Savings and household goods 
accumulated during the floodtide of 
war employment serv^ed as a kind of un¬ 
employment insurance and Govern¬ 
ment effort at amelioration was more 
serious and on a larger scale than ever 
b^ore. In order to meet the problem 
of unemployment among the demobi¬ 
lized soldiers in the winter of 1919-20, 
the Federal Government provided 
financial assistance for all necessitous 
cases. Relief was not given to any 
unemployed ex-service man unless he 
had registered at the nearest local 
office of the Employment Service of 
Canada. The expenditure under this 
scheme was expected to mount into 
the tens of millions, but when relief 
was discontinued late in April, 1920, 
the total disbursement among 43,382 
ex-service men was $4,629,803.70. 

Government Gives Financial Aid 

The Dominion Government shared 
directly in the cost of unemployment 
relief with the municipalities and prov¬ 
inces for the first time in the winter of 


1920-21 on the theory that the prevail¬ 
ing unemployment was in large meas¬ 
ure consequent upon the war. Indeed 
the provinces had assisted the munici¬ 
palities with unemployment relief only 
on rare occasions. In a memorandum 
issued December 24, 1920, the Govern¬ 
ment urged that in as far as possible 
the situation should be met by the pro¬ 
vision of work instead of relief, but 
agreed to bear one-third of the cost of 
any necessary relief if the distribution 
were organized by the municipal au¬ 
thorities. It was expected that the 
provincial governments would also 
meet one-third of the relief expenditure. 
Applicants for relief were required to 
register at the local office of the Em¬ 
ployment Service and to secure a 
certificate that work was not available. 
Thirty-one municipalities in six prov¬ 
inces took advantage of the offer and 
received about $500,000 from the 
Dominion treasury, indicating a total 
expenditure on unemployment relief of 
$1,500,000. The Dominion Govern¬ 
ment accepted full responsibility for 
the relief of handicapped ex-service 
men out of employment, and about 
$1,200,000 was expended in this way. 

The Government pursued this policy 
still further the following winter. An 
order-in-council of October 7, 1921 
(P. C. 3831) announced that if a mu¬ 
nicipality should undertake any work 
during the winter months in order to 
provide employment and would bear 
the cost of carrying on the project in 
the usual working season, the Govern¬ 
ment would share the difference be¬ 
tween the actual cost and the estimated 
normal cost equally with the munici¬ 
pality and the province. Thje Govern¬ 
ment also agreed to continue to refund 
to the municipalities one-third of their 
disbursements on unemployment relief. 
Both proposals were subject to the con¬ 
dition that the provinces should share in 
the expense equally with the Dominion. 


Unemployment and Organization of the Labour Market 


289 



Map Showing Distribution of the Offices of the Employment Service of Canada 







290 


The Annals of the American Academy 


The slight changes made by the 
Mackenzie King Government, which 
took office at the first of the year, were 
in the direction of more liberal terms 
to the municipalities. The new Gov¬ 
ernment agreed to pay one-half instead 
of one-third of the excess cost of works 
undertaken during the winter to relieve 
unemployment and also to bear one- 
half of the cost of relief extended to 
imemployed ex-service men. The Fed¬ 
eral Government’s expenditure under 
this scheme amounted to approxi¬ 
mately $1,225,000, which was ffivided 
about equally between works and re¬ 
lief. The number of those benefited 
under the works plan was considerable, 
especially as rotation schemes were set 
up in cooperation with the Employ¬ 
ment Service in several localities. The 
measure of supervision of municipal 
expenditures which was introduced 
under the relief plan, and especially 
the requirement that applicants for 
assistance should register at the local 
employment office, marked a decided 
advance upon the promiscuous relief¬ 
giving so widely prevalent in 1914-15. 

11. ORGANIZATION OF LABOUR 
MARKET 

The early Canadian farmers fre¬ 
quently followed th6 Old World custom 
of hiring their help on yearly contracts 
at the annual fairs and this was prob¬ 
ably the first stage in the evolution of 
an organized labour market in Canada. 
Farm help was recruited for the most 
part from the somewhat numerous 
sons and daughters of the farming 
community itself. True, there was a 
sprinkling of immigrant workers from 
the United Kingdom, but the Canadian 
youth, trained in the many-sidedness 
of agriculture in a new land, was pre¬ 
ferred to the highly specialized farm 
labourer from the Old Country. 

This local labour market disappeared 
with the rise of the cities and the draft¬ 


ing of the country youth into urban 
occupations. Under protest the farmer 
began to look to immigration for his 
labour and found some relief in the 
movement of orphan children from 
Great Britain to the Dominions insti¬ 
tuted by Dr. Barnardo. These young 
workers were more easily adapted to 
Canadian farm life than the adult 
British farm labourer and now numbers 
of them are found in almost every 
countryside. The dearth of native 
farm labour and the resultant depend¬ 
ence upon the immigrant prompted 
government action to stimulate the 
immigration of farm workers, especially 
from Great Britain. In the winter of 
1906-7 “Canadian Government Im¬ 
migration Agents” were appointed on 
a commission basis in nearly every 
farming district of Ontario and the 
eastern townships of Quebec to report 
the local labour requirements. This 
information was forwarded to the 
representatives overseas who under¬ 
took to recruit the workers and to 
direct them to the local agents in 
Canada. In 1914 there were 160 
agents in the two provinces and their 
placements totalled from four to five 
thousand annually. The regular sala¬ 
ried immigration officials in some 
thirty cities directed about 20,000 im¬ 
migrants to employment annually, 
making a total annual placement for 
the Immigration Department of about 
25,000. 

Since the war a women’s branch has 
been established in the Department of 
Immigration. This new agency, which 
has the assistance of an advisory coun¬ 
cil of representative women, has done 
much in cooperation with provincial 
officials to promote the immigration of 
household workers from Great Britain. 

In addition to the Dominion Govern¬ 
ment’s effort to recruit workers in the 
United Kingdom, some of the provincial 
departments of agriculture have main- 



Unemployivient and Organization of the Labour Market 291 


tallied representatives overseas, each 
of whom has been engaged in persuad- 
ing people to migrate to his particular 
province as farmers or farm labourers. 
Before the war the Ontario Govern¬ 
ment was securing about 4,000 workers 
annually in this way. 

Public Employment Offices 

The establishment of public em¬ 
ployment offices began during the 
period of industrial development which 
ended in 1913, when railroad and build¬ 
ing construction and expanding in¬ 
dustry were seeking labour as diligently 
as farming. But the few offices of this 
period were not designed to measure 
the labour demand of the community 
and to recruit the workers required. 
In most cases they were established in 
the lean years; their viewpoint was 
philanthropic rather than industrial, 
and with the return of good times they 
generally disappeared, although some¬ 
times retained as agencies of alder- 
manic patronage. The Ontario Gov¬ 
ernment appointed a few part-time 
employment agents during the slack¬ 
ness of 1907-8, and while they were 
maintained for almost a decade their 
work was negligible. 

To Quebec is due the honor of enact¬ 
ing the first legislation for the estab¬ 
lishment of employment offices. “An 
Act respecting the Establishment of 
Employment Bureaus for Workmen” 
was passed in 1910 and three offices 
were opened. But the annual budget 
as late as 1915 was only about $15,000; 
the officials were underpaid and the 
placements did not exceed 7,000 or 
8,000 per annum. The provinces of 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta 
were accustomed to open temporary 
employment offices for the distribu¬ 
tion of farm hands during the grain 
harvest but no permanent employment 
exchange was established. 


Abolishment of Private 
Employment Agencies 

With the unemployment which ap¬ 
peared in the winter of 1913-14 both 
the Dominion and provincial govern¬ 
ments began to consider the need for 
better organization of the labour mar¬ 
ket. The British Columbia Royal Com¬ 
mission on Labour, reporting in 1914, 
recommended the abolition of private 
employment agencies and the establish¬ 
ment of provincial public employment 
offices and indicated their preference 
for a national system of employment 
exchanges. Some months after the 
outbreak of the war the results of a 
departmental enquiry on unemploy¬ 
ment, undertaken by the Federal 
Department of Labour in 1914, which 
included a plan for a nation-wide 
system of public employment offices, 
were placed at the disposal of the 
Ontario Commission on Unemploy¬ 
ment. 

Despite its provincial limitations the 
Commission, reporting in 1916, favored 
“an effective national system” of 
employment offices as well as the es¬ 
tablishment of provincial offices. The 
Ontario Government enacted legisla¬ 
tion to implement the Commission’s 
recommendations with regard to pro¬ 
vincial employment offices in 1916. 
British Columbia followed this ex¬ 
ample in 1917, Manitoba in 1918, and 
Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1919. 
The three last mentioned provinces 
provided in this legislation for the 
abolition of private employment agen¬ 
cies and in 1919 British Columbia 
passed a separate statute to that effect. 
With private agencies abolished by law 
throughout the West, Nova Scotia 
followed in a statute of 1920 and the 
Ontario Government at the 1919 ses¬ 
sion authorized a reduction in the 
number of commercial agencies. Que¬ 
bec has not granted any new private 


292 


The Annals of the American Academy 


employment agency licenses in recent 
years and in the two remaining prov¬ 
inces—New Brunswick and Prince 
Edward Island—the number of such 
agencies is negligible. 

Employment Offices’ Coordination 

Act 

The war need of conservation of 
labor and apprehension of the diffi¬ 
culty of reabsorbing the soldiers gave 
rise to a demand for some better or¬ 
ganization for labour distribution than 
the ten or twelve uncoordinated em¬ 
ployment offices established by the 
provinces of Ontario and Quebec. 
Accordingly, in 1918, the Dominion 
Government passed the Employment 
Offices’ Coordination Act, which au¬ 
thorized the Minister of Labour to aid 
and encourage the organization and 
coordination of employment offices and 
to promote uniformity of methods 
among them; to establish clearing¬ 
houses for the interchange of informa¬ 
tion between employment offices con¬ 
cerning the transfer of labour and other 
matters; and to compile and distribute 
information received from employment 


Government amended the Act to per¬ 
mit of this in 1920 and the larger mu¬ 
nicipalities of the province responded. 
With the • encouragement afforded 
under this legislation the number of 
offices increased to 95 during the full 
tide of demobilization, and at present 
the number of offices is 75. 

The expenditures of the provinces 
for the maintenance of employment 
offices under the Act have been as 
follows: 1018-19, $107,231.98; 1919-20, 
$338,415.22; 1920-21, $467,781.50; 

1921-22, $478,538.02. Subventions 

amounting to one-half of these sums 
have been paid over to the provinces 
by the Dominion Government and in 
addition the expenses of the Employ¬ 
ment Service Branch of the Depart¬ 
ment of Labour at Ottawa and its 
clearing-houses at Halifax and Winni¬ 
peg have come from the Federal 
treasury. 

Present and Future of the Employ¬ 
ment Service 

The following table gives the place¬ 
ments of the Employment Service 
since its inauguration: 


Year 

Regular 

Casual 

Total 

1919 (10 months).. 

268,001 

37,904 

305,905 

1920. 

366,547 

79,264 

445,811 

1921. 

280,518 

75,238 

355,756 

1922 . 

297,827 

95,695 

393,522 


offices and from other sources as to 
employment conditions. 

In a short time agreements were 
completed with all the provinces except 
New Brunswick and Prince Edward 
Island. The latter has a population of 
about 90,000, mainly rural, and did not 
feel any need for action, while in New 
Brunswick the Government took the 
view that the municipalities should 
share^in the expense. The Dominion 


Soon after the organization of the 
Employment Service of Canada^ a 
system for the clearance of labour be¬ 
tween the different offices was estab¬ 
lished. All the larger railways granted 
a special transportation rate for the use 

2 For a more detailed account of the organi¬ 
zation of the Employment Service see The Em¬ 
ployment Service of Canada, Bulletin of the De¬ 
partment of History and Political and Economic 
Science in Queen’s University, Kingston, On¬ 
tario, Canada—No. 32. July 1919. 
















Unemployment and Organization of the Labour Market 


293 


of persons sent to employment at a 
distance through the Service, and 
about 50,000 are transported under 
this arrangement annually. 

The central advisory council, called 
the Employment Service Council of 
Canada, has contributed materially to 
the development of the organization. 
This body, which was established by 
order-in-council soon after the Em¬ 
ployment Service began to function, 
now has 23 members, of whom eight 
are representatives of the provinces 
that have established employment of¬ 
fices under the Federal law. The Cana¬ 
dian Manufacturers’ Association has 
two members, and the Association of 
Canadian Building and Construction 
Industries, the Railway Association of 
Canada and the Canadian Lumber¬ 
men’s Association each have one 
member. The Trades and Labour 
Congress of Canada has two represent¬ 
atives; the Canadian Railway Brother¬ 
hoods, one; the Great War Veterans’ 
Association, one; the Canadian Council 
of Agriculture, two; the Department of 
Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment, one; 
and the Department of Labour, three, 
two of whom must be women. 
With the recommendations of this 
advisory body for its guidance in 
dealing with such controversial mat¬ 
ters as wages and hours, and indus¬ 
trial disputes, the Employment Service 
has been able to follow a course that 
has commended it to both employers 
and employees. 

The Employment Service Council 
has shown a marked interest in spe¬ 
cialized employment work for juveniles 
and business and professional workers 
and on its recommendations promising 
beginnings in the provision of more ad¬ 


equate facilities for such persons have 
been made in some of the larger cities. 

Local councils have been established 
for several of the employment offices of 
the Service and provincial advisory 
councils have been appointed in On¬ 
tario and Alberta, a step which will 
probably be taken eventually by all 
the cooperating provinces. These Em¬ 
ployment Service Councils should 
prove efficient agencies of community 
organization in the struggle against 
unemployment. 

One may venture the prediction that 
the Employment Service of Canada is 
destined to play an important role in 
the Canadian industrial drama. Its 
work lies before. Little more than 
the setting up of this nation-wide 
machinery could be hoped for in the 
four years since the law was passed. 
The cooperation established with the 
Department of Immigration will no 
doubt be continued and extended as 
well as the relationship with the pas¬ 
senger departments of the railways for 
the better recruiting and distribution 
of labour for the western harvest. 
There is opportunity also for a closer 
dovetailing of occupations and a well- 
prepared plan for the transfer of 
workers in the autumn from farming 
and railway maintenance to lumbering 
and for their return in the spring which 
should commend itself to all parties. 
Some day there should be opportunity 
to attack the problem of casual labour 
at our sea and lake ports and to under¬ 
take other lines of endeavor for the 
regularization of employment. Better 
organization of the labour market alone 
will offset the disadvantages under 
which we labour to attract and retain 
workers from other lands. 


Arbitration and Conciliation in Canada 

By R. M. MacIver, M.A., D.Phil. 

Professor of Economics, University of Toronto 


C ANADA has had its fair share 
of those industrial experiments 
which look towards the maintenance of 
peace within the wage system. Many 
of the expedients tried in the States, 
whether by individual firms (such as 
the Imperial Oil Company) or by trades 
(such as the garment-making trades) 
have been carried over into Canada, 
owing to the continuity of industry 
across the tariff line. On the other 
hand British influence has been mani¬ 
fest in the interest taken in joint in¬ 
dustrial councils after the Whitley 
model, though, outside of the building 
and construction trades, it cannot be 
said that this interest has had any 
important results. A Royal Commis¬ 
sion on Industrial Relations, which 
reported in 1919, advocated the prin¬ 
ciple of Joint Industrial Councils, and 
a certain number of such councils were 
established, but they have on the 
whole been of little significance. 

Of a different character is the Joint 
Council of Industry, officially estab¬ 
lished by the province of Manitoba in 
1920. This Council, consisting of five 
members, two being representative of 
employers, two of employees, with an 
“impartial chairman,” 

was given wide powers of intervening in in¬ 
dustrial disputes, either actual or threat¬ 
ened, investigating conditions of employ¬ 
ment, cost of living and other matters. . . . 
The Joint Council, which was appointed in 
April, 1920, reports considerable success in 
averting strikes and lockouts. Out of 
twenty cases of differences between em¬ 
ployers and workers dealt with during the 
first year of operation, settlements ac¬ 
ceptable to both parties were effected by 
the Joint Council in eighteen cases {Labour 
Gazette, December, 1921). 


In its report for the following year 
the Council states: 

During the year thirty-six cases of dis¬ 
pute have been dealt with. In thirty-two 
of these cases the Council was able to effect 
a removal of differences and a settlement of 
the dispute {Labour Gazette, March, 1922). 

Mention should also be made of the 
effieient operation of the Canadian 
Railway Board of Adjustment, No. 1, 
established by joint agreement between 
the Railway Association of Canada and 
the six large unions of railroad em¬ 
ployees. As this body, however, is on 
identical lines with the U. S. Railway 
Board of Adjustment, No. 1, its ac¬ 
tivity does not need further considera¬ 
tion here. 

The Industrial Disputes Act 

The really distinctive Canadian ex¬ 
periment is of eourse the Industrial 
Disputes Investigation Act of 1907, 
passed as the result of a protracted 
strike in that most troubled of all in¬ 
dustrial fields, the mining of coal. 
Nowhere are strikes more prolonged, 
more bitter, more frequent, and more 
disastrous to the public than in the 
production of that absolutely vital 
commodity. The strike of 1906 in 
southern Alberta brought this faet 
foreibly before the Government and 
made a great impression on Mr. Mac¬ 
kenzie King, then Deputy Minister of 
Labour, and now Premier of Canada. 
The resulting Act was of an ingenious 
and somewhat unusual nature. It 
might be described as a compromise 
between coneiliation and arbitration. 
In its full sense arbitration implies a 
, tribunal whose verdict is binding on 
the parties to the dispute. That is 


Arbitration and Conciliation in Canada 


295 


not required by the Act under con¬ 
sideration. It forbids under penalty the 
declaration of a strike or lockout prior 
to or during reference of the dispute 
to a board, in such cases as come with¬ 
in the scope of the Act. The board, 
if constituted, must expeditiously en¬ 
quire into the case and attempt a settle¬ 
ment. Its verdict need not be accepted 
by either side, and after its deliverance 
a strike or lockout again becomes legal. 

Such a device was not entirely novel, 
but it was framed in a way which 
showed a distinctive grasp of the diffi¬ 
culties involved in all intervention by 
government in industrial issues. In 
the first place it was to apply only to 
industries where a paramount public 
interest required the preservation of 
peace. These are described as 

any mining property, agency of transporta¬ 
tion or communication, or public service 
utility, including, except as hereinafter pro¬ 
vided, railways, whether operated by steam, 
electricity, or other motive power, steam¬ 
ships, telegraphs and telephone lines, gas, 
electric light, water and power works. 

The term “public utility” is notori¬ 
ously hard to define and is not defined 
further in the Act. Thus there re¬ 
mains a certain discretion to the 
Minister to decide, by granting or 
withholding a board, whether or not, 
say, a particular form of municipal 
service comes within the scope of the 
Act. In the second place one or other 
of the parties to the dispute must apply 
for a board before the machinery of the 
Act can be set in motion, and provision 
is made to ensure that such request is 
really at the instance of the authorized 
representative of the company or of 
the employees concerned.^ In the third 
place the Act requires a declaration 

1 It should be observed in passing that the Act 
provides also for the reference of disputes in 
industries not coming within its restrictive 
definition, on request from both the parties in¬ 
volved, an arrangement of which advantage has 
occasionally been taken. 


that negotiation between the parties 
has reached the breaking-point, so that 
a strike or lockout will result apart from 
intervention. 

The Act thus reduced compulsion to 
a minimum. There is nothing here of 
the bold intervention by government 
which we associate with compulsory 
arbitration as applied in New Zealand 
and Australia or recently in Kansas. 
The compulsory clauses are meant 
merely to ensure the delay and oppor¬ 
tunity requisite for investigation, and 
it would seem a most reasonable and 
minimal demand that, where a cessa¬ 
tion of work would dislocate the eco¬ 
nomic life of the whole community and 
where at least one of the two disputants 
is willing to appeal for a board of in¬ 
vestigation, the law should insist that 
such a board be at least allowed to 
meet and function ere resort be made 
to the ultima ratio of strife. 

It was natural that an Act so framed 
should attract very considerable at¬ 
tention outside of Canada. Numerous 
articles have appeared in popular and 
economic periodicals of various coun¬ 
tries describing its operation. It has 
been the subject of a special report to 
the British Board of Trade by Sir 
George Askwith, a distinguished and 
successful mediator in industrial dis¬ 
putes. The U. S. Bureau of Labour 
Statistics has issued a number of re¬ 
ports on the subject, the most complete 
being one by Mr. Benjamin Squires, 
published in 1918 (Bulletin No. 233). 
At various times from 1907 to the 
present day it has been advocated in 
the legislative assemblies of other 
states, and one American state, Colo¬ 
rado, has had in operation since 1915 
an Act built on the Canadian model. 

What of Its Success.^ 

What then has been its success dur¬ 
ing these sixteen years of operation? 
The latest annual report on the opera- 


296 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Year Ending March 31, 1922 


Industries Affected 

No. OF Applica¬ 
tions FOR Board 
Received 

No. OF Boards 
Established 

No. OF Strikes 
Not Averted 
OR Ended 

I Disputes affecting mines, transportation 
and communication and other public 
utilities. 

40 

22 

1 

II Disputes not falling clearly within the 
direct scope of the Act. 

14 

9 

0 

Total, all classes..'. 

54 

33 

1 

Period from March 22, 1907, to March 31, 1922 

. 

I Disputes affecting mines, transportation 
and communication, other public utili¬ 
ties and war w’ork. 

1 

448 


32 

II Disputes not falling clearly within the 
direct scope of the Act. 

110 

, , 

2 

Total, all classes. 

558 


34 


tion of the Act {Labour Gazette, July, 
1922) may be summarized as shown 
above: 

This makes an excellent return, 
but before we draw conclusions there 
are some important questions to be 
answered. We have to remember in 
the first place that the object of the 
Act is to prevent strikes in certain 
crucial industries, not merely to adjust 
such disputes as are referred to boards 
constituted under it. How far then 


has it prevented strikes? Let us take 
first the coal-mining industry, whose 
troublesome character was most re¬ 
sponsible for the framing of the Act. 
The Report on Strikes and Lockouts, 
1901-16 (Department of Labour), gives 
us the following far from hopeful 
figures. (See chart below.) 

It has to be admitted that the later 
periods were marked by growing 
unionization in the coal-mining indus¬ 
try and that the most protracted dis- 


Period 

Number of 
Disputes in 
Mining Indus¬ 
tries 

No. Employees ' 
Affected 

Time-Loss in 
Working Days 

1901-5. 

37 

27,732 

647,172 

1906-10.. 

50 

33,997 

1,510,307 

1911-5. 

29 

26,231 

2,570,688 


















































Arbitration and Conciliation in Canada 


297 


putes were those concerning recogni¬ 
tion of the union. This is an issue in 
which the respective parties are gener¬ 
ally least willing to accept arbitration. 
But making all allowances we must 
acknowledge the failure of the Act to 
establish even a degree of industrial 
peace within this sphere. This is very 
evident if we consider the time-loss in 
coal mining alone, which showed an in¬ 
crease of 265.4 per cent in the period 
1907-12 as compared with the period 
1901-7. 

Other industries within the scope of 
the Act present results less unfavour¬ 
able, but only in transportation is 
there conclusive evidence of a decrease 
in time-loss through strikes since the 
passing of the Act. In the industries 
included under “general transport” 
the time-loss for the period 1901-5 was 
411,778 working days while for the 
period 1911-5 it was only 212,139 days. 
All comparisons of this sort are of 
course subject to difficulties of inter¬ 
pretation, but it seems likely that the 
relatively stable and generally well- 
organized series of transport industries 
offer the most hopeful field for an act 
of the kind we are considering. 

Penal Provisions 

If the Act has been so partial a 
success, what of its penal provisions? 
Section 58 prescribes that 

any employer declaring or causing a lockout 
contrary to the provisions of this Act shall 
be liable to a fine of not less than $100, nor 
more than $1,000 for each day or part of a 
day that such lockout exists. 

Section 59 provides for a fine of not 
less than $10 nor more than $50 per day 
in the'case of any employee who strikes 
contrary to the Act. These are drastic 
enough provisions, but they have 
never yet been enforced. Rarely has 
judicial action followed an illegal 
strike, and even when it has the penalty 


has not been enforced. Mr. Mackenzie 
King once declared that “the govern¬ 
ment has never laid particular stress 
upon the penalty end of it.” This, in 
light of the fact just cited, is a very 
mild expression of the failure of com¬ 
pulsion. Sir George Askwith has 
rightly pointed out that whatever 
measure of success the Act has achieved 
is outwith its compulsory features 
altogether, and 

lies in permitting the parties and the public 
to obtain full knowledge of the real cause of 
the dispute and in causing suggestions to 
be made as impartially as possible on the 
basis of such knowledge for dealing with 
existing difficulties, whether a strike or 
lockout has commenced or not. This ac¬ 
tion on behalf of the public allows an ele¬ 
ment of calm judgment to be introduced 
into the dispute which at the time the 
parties themselves may be unable to 
exercise. 

It may well be questioned whether 
penal provisions which remain a dead 
letter are not worse than useless, 
whether it would not be better to dis¬ 
miss the discredited and therefore 
politically unwise enforcement clauses 
so that the Act shall stand simply as a 
machinery for conciliation. 

A Machinery for Conciliation 

As such, it has undoubtedly achieved 
a degree of success. What the official 
■ reports of its working really go to prove 
is that where the parties to a dispute 
are well disposed towards the Act it can 
serve a useful function. This in fact is 
all that in the light of the history of 
arbitration and conciliation can be 
claimed for any act of the kind. Where 
there is on either side a deep-seated 
resentment with economic conditions, 
compulsion has proved, on both po¬ 
litical and economic grounds, a futile 
proceeding, leading in the long run to 
contempt for the law. The machinery 
of the Act seems in general as well-de- 


298 


The Annals of the American Academy 


vised as any such instrumentality can 
be, and where it fails it is because of 
conditions in which outside interven¬ 
tion, at the moment when a rupture is 
imminent, is powerless. It must not 
be forgotten that arbitration assumes 
the general status quo of industry and 
can function only where neither party 
violently objects to it. 

The Act has been, within these 
limits, well administered no less than 
well conceived. There is always a 
difficulty in the appointment of an 
“ impartial chairman ” in these matters, 
but less objection than perhaps might 
have been expected has been made to 
the choice of the minister when, as hot 
infrequently, the disputants failed to 
agree in nominating one. Nor is it 
fair to say outright that labour in 
Canada is opposed to the Act. This 
charge was made by Mr. Garretson, 
President of the Order of Railway 
Conductors of America, in the issue of 
The Annals for January, 1917. Mr. 
Garretson declared that “no weapon as 
potent as this Industrial Dispute Act 
has been devised for defeating the 
legitimate efforts of labouring men to 
better their conditions.” It would be 
a gross exaggeration to say that this 
statement represents the present atti- • 
tilde of organized labour in Canada. 
It is true that there have been occa¬ 
sions when the Dominion Trades and 
Labour Congress has denounced the 
Act. But on the whole organized la¬ 
bour is at present inclined to accept 
it. Of late years, in their annual de¬ 
mands for legislation, they have not 
asked for the appeal of the Act, but for 
minor amendments. Thus in January 
of the present year they requested the 
Government 


to impose penalties on companies or cor¬ 
porations violating Section 57 of the Act; 
to compel parties seeking a change in wages 
or conditions to make application for a 
board, in case an agreement is not reached; 
to substitute in the application for a board, 
in place of the declaration under oath “that 
to the belief of the declarant a strike or 
lockout will be declared” a simple declara¬ 
tion of failure to reach an agreement by 
direct negotiation {Labour Gazette^ Febru¬ 
ary, 1923). 

It should be explained that Section 
57 insists on “employers and employees 
giving 30 days’ notice of an intended 
change affecting conditions of employ¬ 
ment with respect to wages or hours,” 
and also forbids either of the parties 
affected from altering these conditions 
“in the event of such intended change 
resulting in a dispute, until the dispute 
has been finally dealt with by a board.” 

Employees Favour Act 

If further evidence is necessary, it 
may be found in the fact that the over¬ 
whelming majority of the applications 
for a board have come from the side 
of the employees. In fact Canadian 
labour would for the most part look 
with favour on the widening of the 
scope of the Act to include such con¬ 
cerns as the Hydro-Electric Commis¬ 
sion of Ontario. The Industrial Dis¬ 
putes Investigation Act has therefore 
not broken down. Every month 
boards are set up for the adjustment of 
difficulties which otherwise would prob¬ 
ably lead to open strife. Its moderate 
character has given it an assured if 
limited function, and it fulfils that 
function today at least as successfully 
as at the time ,of its inauguration 
sixteen years ago. 


Political Developments within the Labour Movement 

in Canada 

By J. S. WooDswoRTH, M.P. 

House of Commons, Ottawa 


T O understand the Canadian labour 
movement, one must bear in mind 
the general characteristics of Cana¬ 
dian life. Until very recently Canada 
was predominantly agricultural. There 
was abundant free land and in the 
rapidly growing settlements there were 
almost unlimited opportunities for 
successful activity. Under these cir¬ 
cumstances, the people generally de¬ 
veloped considerable initiative and a 
strong individualism. 

Owing to its isolated position, Can¬ 
ada had little interest in world affairs. 
Political questions were largely local 
and did not command the attention of 
the majority of the people who were 
immersed in their own personal affairs. 

With the opening up of the West, 
the completion of the transcontinental 
railways, the development of indus¬ 
trialism, the influx of a large number of 
immigrants and the establishment of 
world relationships, Canada entered 
upon a new period of activity. Many 
Canadian farm boys passed directly 
into good positions in the industrial, 
commercial and flnancial life of the 
country. The larger business enter¬ 
prises realizing the value of favourable 
legislation and administration were 
easily able to gain control of the 
machinery of government. Intent 
on “making money” or getting a 
start in the New Land, most of the 
people still remained indifferent to 
public affairs. 

Then came the war sweeping every¬ 
thing before it. Now after the war’s 
disillusionments and after waiting 


vainly for the prosperity which was 
confidently declared by the leaders to 
be “just around the corner,” a people 
untrained in political life face the diffi¬ 
cult task of reconstruction. 

Many Difficulties Presented . 

This task is rendered much more 
difficult because of the vast territorial 
extent of Canada and the great differ¬ 
ences which separate the various 
sections. This handicap to united 
action is felt keenly in the labour move¬ 
ment. There is a wide gap between 
the miners of Cape Breton and the 
textile workers of Montreal or the 
members of the building trades of 
Toronto. A thousand miles of wilder¬ 
ness separates Toronto from Winnipeg, 
the distributing center for the prairies. 
Then it is another fifteen hundred miles 
before we reach the loggers and fisher¬ 
men of the Pacific. 

The situation is rendered still more 
complicated by the mixed population. 
Catholic French-speaking Quebec is 
very different from Protestant English- 
speaking Ontario. A large portion of 
the skilled labourers, especially in the 
West, are English or Scotch with 
several generations of industrial train¬ 
ing behind them. A considerable part 
of the unskilled labourers come from the 
various countries in Europe and on the 
west coast from the Orient, and must 
face the easily evoked prejudice against 
“foreigners.” 

Sources of the Movement 

Within the Canadian labour move¬ 
ment itself we can trace the various 




299 


300 


The Annals of the American Academy 


streams of thought that are making 
their contribution. First of all is the 
sturdy independence and practical 
resourcefulness and yet narrowness of 
outlook of the native-born Canadian. 
Modifying or reinforcing this is the 
policy of the American Federation of 
Labour with which the majority of the 
Canadian organizations are affiliated, 
and under the influence of which their 
policies have been largely determined. 

Again there is the radical continental 
Socialism which in this country has 
been broadcasted through the Ameri¬ 
can publishing Arm of Kerr and various 
American labour journals. More re¬ 
cently there is evident the great in¬ 
fluence of the British labour movement 
from which so many workers in Canada 
have come and with which they keep 
more or less in touch. Lastly, we have 
the world-wide dynamic of the Russian 
Revolution, which as a vast experiment 
in Proletarian rule may be said to have 
captured the imagination of the work¬ 
ers the world over. 

Up till very recent years, the organ¬ 
ized labour movement took compara¬ 
tively little interest in politics. The 
policy of the American Federation of 
Labour did not encourage independent 
political action. Under the influence 
of American headquarters the actions 
of the United States courts and state 
legislatures were probably more dis¬ 
cussed in Canadian unions than were 
those of the Canadian provinces. 

Gradually, however, under the stim¬ 
ulus of immigrant English and Scotch 
workers, the local trades and labour 
councils began to appoint labour repre¬ 
sentation committees. These endorsed 
or nominated candidates for municipal 
and sometimes Parliamentary office. 

• Impetus of Outside Influences' 

Outside the unions but having a 
great influence in their discussions 
arose various Socialist organizations, 


which devoted most of their energies 
to propaganda work. The most ag¬ 
gressive of these was the Socialist 
Party of Canada, with its headquarters 
in Vancouver. Its organizers had 
come from the western states. It 
boasted an ultra orthodox and un¬ 
compromising Marxianism. Through 
its persistent propaganda by meetings 
and literature it has exercised a very 
wide influence in Canada. Direct po¬ 
litical results are, however, negligible 
and its organizations at present con¬ 
fined to several small “locals.” 

A great impetus was given to the 
political movement in Canada by the 
formation of the British Labour Party. 
After the war, labour men in many sec¬ 
tions of the country came to feel that 
they must have their own representa¬ 
tives in the various public bodies and 
to this end must build up a political 
organization. In most of the prov¬ 
inces of Canada there sprang up labour 
parties modelled more or less after the 
British Labour Party and adopting or 
adapting the platform laid down in the 
famous Draft Programme presented 
to that organization. 

At this time when all sorts of recon¬ 
struction schemes were in the air, when 
the Russian Revolution had challenged 
the capitalist regime, many considered 
that the time might not be far distant 
when the economic system in all coun¬ 
tries would break down. With some 
this led to a sort of fatalism or to the 
minimizing of the value of Parliamen¬ 
tary action and the insistence on some 
form of “direct action.” With others, 
it greatly stimulated the interest in 
public affairs and led to a greater zeal 
in extending the political organization 
of labour. 

Developments in the industrial field 
continually produced direct reactions 
in political parties, ideals and tactics. 
There had long been resentment in the 
Canadian movement against the pre- 


Political Developments within Labour Movement in Canada 301 


pondering influence of the American 
officials. Moreover, there was a move 
toward a more efficient form of organi¬ 
zation than that of craft unionism. 
These tendencies found expression in a 
movement originating in the West for 
the formation of a new type of organi¬ 
zation known as the One Big Union. 
This organization formed just after the 
Winnipeg general strike of 1919, pre¬ 
cipitated a bitter factional dispute in 
which the American Federation of 
Labour was largely victorious? Later a 
new organization formed in the United 
States and known as the Trades Union 
Educational League adopted new tac¬ 
tics to bring about a reorganization of 
the American labour movement. In¬ 
stead of promoting a Secessionist or¬ 
ganization they adopted the slogan 
“A United Front” and urged the 
tactics of “boring from within.” This 
movement is frankly revolutionary in 
character, taking a great deal of its 
inspiration from Moscow. 

Up to the present there can hardly 
be said to be a Canadian Labour Party. 
The political organizations in the 
various provinces and in many cases in 
the different cities, have sprung up 
‘independently and each drafted its own 
programme. 

Attempts at Unification 

Two efforts toward unification have 
been made. In 1921, at the time of 
meeting of the Trades and Labour 
Congress in Winnipeg, there was 
organized a “Canadian Labour Party” 
but, although a meeting of representa¬ 
tives was held the following year at the 
Montreal Congress, the organization is 
largely on paper. Owing to the great 
distances and the dual or multiple in¬ 
dustrial organizations, various labor 
parties have refused to affiliate. 

Another attempt at unification is 
being made by what is known as the 
Workers’ Party of Canada. This or¬ 


ganization, promoted largely by those 
who have come out of the school repre¬ 
sented by the Socialist Party of 
Canada, are working along the lines of 
the Trades Union Educational League. 
They condemn the Secessionist move¬ 
ment in the industrial field, yet have 
organized a new political party and 
insist that other organizations must 
come in on their terms. The net result 
to date has been considerable con¬ 
fusion. 

Real Labour Movement Slowly 
Emerging 

Yet out of all the confusion there is 
emerging a real labour movement. In 
nearly all the provinces labour is be¬ 
coming active in municipal affairs and 
has elected representatives to the 
provincial legislatures as follows: Nova 
Scotia, 4; Quebec, 2; Ontario, 11; 
Manitoba, 6; Alberta, 4; and British 
Columbia, 3. At the last Federal 
Elections, Center Winnipeg and East 
Calgary elected labour candidates, and 
in a number of constituencies the 
farmer candidates owe their election to 
the support of organized labour. With 
a distinct though small group in the 
House of Commons, it may reasonably 
be anticipated that the political growth 
will be much more rapid than in the 
past. 

The platform adopted by the con¬ 
vention of the Canadian Labour Party 
at Winnipeg may be considered fairly 
representative of the attitude of labour 
to the larger problems of the day. 

Preamble: We have in view a complete 
change in our present economic and social 
system. In this we recognize our solidarity 
with the workers the world over. As a 
means to this end and in order to meet the 
present pressing needs, we recommend the 
following platform: 

1. Unemployment — State Insurance 
against Unemployment, chargeable to 
Industry. 


302 


The Annals of the American Academy 


2. Public Ownership and Democratic 
Control of Public Utilities. 

3. Electoral Reform-Proportional Repre¬ 
sentation. Names instead of Election 
Deposit. Extension of Voting Facilities. 

4. Old Age Pensions and Health Dis¬ 
ability Insurance. 

5. Abolition of Non-elective Legislative 
Bodies. 

6. International Disarmament. 

7. Direct Legislation—Initiative, Refer¬ 
endum, Recall. 

8. Enactment of Recommendations of 


Washington Labour Conference, especially 
the eight-hour day. 

9. Repeal of Amendment to Immigra¬ 
tion Act providing for Deportation of 
British Subjects. 

10. Removal of Taxation on the Neces¬ 
sities of Life, Taxation of Land Values, and 
Abolition of Fiscal Legislation that Leads 
to Class Privileges. 

11. Nationalization of the Banking Sys¬ 
tem. 

12. Capital Levy for Reduction of War 
Debt. 


Select Bibliography of Social and Economic Conditions 

in Canada 

W. P. M. Kennedy, M.A., Litt.D. 

University of Toronto 


T he aim of this bibliography is to 
provide a convenient and selected 
list of references which in their turn 
will serve to widen the authorities. 
Most of the Departments of the 
Federal Government at Ottawa have 
mailing lists and are glad to enter 
names on them for their publications. 
It is thus possible for research students 
to keep their material from these 
official sources up to date. 

General 

Atlas of Canada (1915: Dominion Bureau 
of Statistics. A new edition is in 
preparation incorporating the results 
of the 1921 Census). 

Canada: Acts of Parliament and of the 
Provincial Legislatures, Debates and 
Sessional Papers. 

Canada Year Book (annually: Dominion 
Bureau of Statistics). 

Canadian Institute (Toronto), Transac¬ 
tions. 

Kennedy, W. P. M., The Constitution of 
Canada: Its Development and Law 
(1923). 

Review of Historical Publications Relating to 
Canada (1896-1918. The new series 
under the title The Canadian Historical 
Review is in progress, quarterly. These 
publications contain authoritative re¬ 
views of the economic literature and 
are well indexed). 

Royal Society of Canada. Transactions. 
Shortt and Doughty (Ed.), Canada and Its 
Provinces (23 Vols: 1914. Well in¬ 
dexed with a good bibliography). 
Supreme Court Reports of Canada and of 
the Provinces. 

The Canadian Annual Review (Toronto: 
yearly). 

Dominions Royal Commission, Fifth In¬ 
terim Report, relating to Canada (Cd., 
8457). 


Final Report on the Natural Resources, 
Trade and Legislation (Cd, 8462). 

Minutes of Evidence {Canada) (Cd., 7971, 
8458, 8459). 

I. Population 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics and Census, 
Reports. 

Dominion Department of Immigration and 
Colonization, Reports. 

Dominion Department of Indian Affairs, 
Reports. 

Dominion House of Commons, Debates on 
Oriental Immigration (Sessions 1912- 
13, 1922). 

Immigration Commission of U. S. A., 
Reports. 

Survey of Land Ownerships by Orientals in 
British Columbia (British Columbia: 
Department of Agriculture, 1920). 

Treaty Agreement between United Kingdom 
and Japan (Treaty Series: 1911, No. 
18). 

Vital Statistics of the Provinces. 

Votes and Proceedings in the Assembly of 
British Columbia (Session 1922, Nos. 
15, 34, 35). 

Adams, F. H., The Administration of Indian 
Affairs in Canada (1915). 

Anderson, J. T. M., The Education of the 
New Canadian (1918). 

Canadian Reconstruction Association, To¬ 
ronto, Suggestions for Land Settlement 
(1921). 

Caron, I., “La Colonisation du Canada” 
(in L’Annuaire Statistique de Quebec). 

“La Colonisation de la Province de Que¬ 
bec” {Le Canada Frangais, vol. iii, 
no. 5). 

Consulate-General of Japan, Ottawa, Facts 
about Japanese in Canada (1922). 

Lorti, S. A., Uorigine et le parler des cana- 
diens-frangais (1903). 

Origine des premiers colons canadiens- 
frangais (1915). 


303 


304 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Mills, H. A., The Japanese Problem in the 
United States (1915). 

Oliver, E. H., The Country School in non- 
English-speaking Communities in Sas¬ 
katchewan (1915). 

Pelletier, G., “Le Partage de rimmigration 
canadienne depuis 1900” {Transac¬ 
tions of the Royal Society of Canada, 
3d ser., vol. xii, sec. i). 

Sato, K., and lyenaga, T., Japan and the 
California Problem (1912). 

Smith, W. G., A Study in Canadian Immi¬ 
gration (1920. A pioneer general 
survey. Statistics insecure). 

Woodsworth, J. S., Strangers within our 
Gates (.1909). 

II. Resources 

Commission on Conservation, Ottawa, 
Reports (annual); Bulletins on Fish¬ 
eries, Forests, Water-powers. 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Monthly 
Bulletin of Agricultural Statistics. 

Dominion Department of Agriculture, 
Agricultural Gazette; Bulletins; Reports. 

Dominion Department of Interior (For¬ 
estry, Irrigation and Water-power), 
Bulletins; Natural Resources (monthly). 

Dominion Department of Mines (Geologi¬ 
cal Survey and Mines BisliicM), Reports. 

Dominion Department of Marine and 
Fisheries, Fisheries' Reports. 

Provincial Departments of Agriculture, of 
Crown lands, of Mines, Reports. 

Preliminary Report on Cobalt Mining Camp 
(Ontario Department of Mines, 1922). 

Progress Report of the Agricultural Survey 
Committee of Manitoba. 

Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry 
into Conditiojis in Southern and Central 
Western Saskatchewan. 

Report of the Survey Board of Southern 
Alberta. 

Report of the Ontario Nickel Commission of 

1917. 

Canadian Institute of Mining and Metal¬ 
lurgy, Transactions. 

Canadian Pacific Railway (Department of 
Colonisation and Development), Agri¬ 
cultural and Industrial Progress in 
Canada (Montreal: monthly; in prog¬ 
ress). 

International Geological Congress (1913), 
The Coal Resources of the World, 


Adams, F. D., “The Need of Industrial 
Research in Canada” {Bulletins of the 
Honorary Advisory Council for Scien¬ 
tific and Industrial Research, no. 1). 

“The Honorary Advisory Council for 
Scientific and Industrial Research and 
Its Work” {Ibid., no. 9). 

Biggar, E. B., Hydro-Electric Development 
in Ontario (1920). 

Buller, A. H. R., Essays on Wheat (1919). 

Ferrier, W. F., and Ferrier, D. J., Anno¬ 
tated Catalogue of and Guide to the 
Publications of the Geological Survey of 
Canada, 1845-1917 (1920). 

Fields, J. C., “Science and Industry” 
{Bulletins of Advisory Council, no. 5). 

Ruttan, R. F., “A Plan for the Develop¬ 
ment of Industrial Research in Can¬ 
ada” {Ibid., no. 10). 

III. Education 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Historical 
Statistical Survey of Education in 
Canada (1921). 

Report of the Conference on Education 
Statistics (1920). 

Report on Education Statistics (1921). 

Dominion Department of Labour, Annual 
Reports of the Director of Technical 
Education. 

Report of the Conference on Technical 
Education (1920). 

Report of the Royal Commission on In¬ 
dustrial Training and Technical Educa¬ 
tion (4 vols. 1913). 

Provincial Departments of Education, 
Annual Reports, Manuals, Regulations. 

Report of the Massey Foundation on the 
Secondary Schools and Colleges of the 
Methodist Church in Canada (1921). 

Universities’ Bureau of the British Empire, 
Year Book. 

Universities of Canada, The Presidents' 
Annual Reports. 

Foght, H. W., Survey of Education in the 
Province of Saskatchewan. 

Montgomery, W. A.', Educational Devel¬ 
opment in the Dominion of Canada 
(U. S. A. Bureau of Education, Bulle¬ 
tins 1919, no. 89). 

Parmelee, G. W., and Sutherland, J. C., 
Education in the Province of Quebec 
(1918). 


Social and Economic Conditions in Canada 


305 


Sandiford, P. (Ed.), Comparative Education 
(1918: Chap. V, by the editor, deals 
with education in Canada). 

Seath, J., Education for Industrial Purposes. 

IV. Transportation 

Dominion Board of Railway Commission¬ 
ers, Reports. 

Dominion Department of Railways and 
Canals, Reports. 

Grand Trunk Arbitration: The Award, and 
Reasons for Award (1921). 

Interstate Commerce Commission, Reports. 

Report of the Railway Commission (1917). 

Biggar, E. B., The Canadian Railway Prob¬ 
lem (1917). 

Canada Railway and Marine World (To¬ 
ronto: in progress). 

Flavelle, Sir J., “ A Plan Aimed to Solve the 
Railway Tangle” (Toronto: The Globe, 
August 25, 1921). 

Innis, H. A., History of the Canadian Pacific 
Railway (1923). 

Jackman, W. T., Articles in The Monetary 
Times (Toronto), April 27, May 4, 11, 
1917, May 2, December 19, 26, 1919, 
August 12, September 16, September 
23, October 13, 1921; in The Traffic 
World (Chicago), June 29, July 6, 
1918; in The Monetary Times Annual 
(Toronto) 1919-20-22-23; in The 
Queen*s Quarterly (Kingston), January, 
1922; in The Railway Age (New York), 
March 11, 18, 1922. 

MacGibbon, D. A., Railway Rates and the 
Canadian Railway Commission (1917). 

Moore, W. H., The Irresponsible Five: A 
New Family Compact (1917). 

Railway Nationalization and the Farmer 
(1917). 

Railway Naturalization and the Average 
Citizen (1918). 

Payne, L. J., Articles in The Railway Age 
(New York), June 20,1919, January 2, 
1920, January 7, March 25, April 8,15, 
July 16, August 13, 1921, January 7, 
July 3, 1923. 

Shaughnessy, Lord, “Plan for Solving the 

gjj,; Railway Problem” (Toronto; The 
Globe, April 25, 1921). 

Tye, W. F., Canada*s Railway Problem and 
Its Solution (1917). 


V. Money and Banking 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Labour 
Gazette (for prices and index numbers). 

Reports on Wholesale Prices. 

Breckenridge, R. M., The History of Bank¬ 
ing in Canada (1910). 

Johnson, J. F., The Canadian Banking 
System (1910). 

National Monetary Commission, Inter¬ 
views on Banking and Currency Systems 
of Canada (1910). 

Ross, V., History of the Canadian Bank of 
Commerce (1922). 

Walker, Sir E., A History of Banking in 
Canada (1909). 

VI. Foreign Trade 

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Annual and 
Monthly Reports on the Trade of Can¬ 
ada. 

Dominion Department of Trade and Com¬ 
merce, Canada as a Field for British 
Industries. 

Canada: Public Accounts (printed by Order 
of Parliament). 

Return of the Chartered Banks of the Do¬ 
minion of Canada (Ottawa: Canada 
Gazette). 

The Monetary Times (Toronto: in progress). 

The Dominion of Canada (1920, Bankers’ 
Trust Company, New York). 

Coats, R. H., Capital: Its Growth and Dis¬ 
tribution, 1900-14. 

Field, F. U., Capital Investments in Canada 
(1911). 

Grain Commission for Canada, List of 
Licensed Elevators (1922). 

Ingalls, W. R., Wealth and Income of the 
American People. 

Lake Shippers’ Clearance Association, 
Reports. 

McFaull, R. J., “Regulation of Business in 
Canada” {Political Science Quarterly, 
June, 1922). 

. VII. Public Finance 

Dominion Department of Finance, Reports. 

Provincial Treasurers, Reports. 

Brittain, H. L., The Taxation System of 
Vancouver (Report to the Mayor and 
City Council of Vancouver, December, 
1920). 


21 


306 


The Annals of the American x\cademy 


Canadian Manufactures’ Association, Ex¬ 
cise Tax (1922). 

Canadian Reconstruction Association, To¬ 
ronto, Canada and Reciprocity with the 
United States (1921). 

Clark, A. B., Outline of Provincial and Mu¬ 
nicipal Taxation in British Columbia, 
Alberta and Saskatchewan (1920). 

Donald, W. J. A., The Canadian Iron and 
Steel Industry: A Study in the Eco¬ 
nomic History of a Protected Industry 
(1915). 

Fleck, A., Kanada: volkwirtschaftliche 
Grundlagen und weltwirtschaftliche 
Beziehungen (1912). 

Grain Growers^ Guide (Winnipeg: in prog¬ 
ress). 

Haig, R. M., Reports of the Board of Taxa¬ 
tion, Province of British Columbia 
(1919). 

Taxation in the Urban Municipalities of 
Saskatchewan (1917). 

The Exemption of Improvements from 
Taxation in Canada and the United 
States (1917) 

Imperial Conferences, Reports (especially 
1902, ’07, 11). 

Industrial Canada (Toronto: in progress). 

Keirstead, W. C., “Provincial Taxation in 
Canada” {Journal of Political Econ¬ 
omy, February, 1923). 

“Succession Duties in Canadian Prov¬ 
inces” {Ibid., April, 1922). 

Manitoba: Annual Report of the Assessment 
and Taxation Commission (1919). 

Patton, H. S., “Reciprocity with Canada: 
the Canadian Viewpoint” {Quarterly 
Journal of Economics, August, 1921). 

Porritt, E., Siddy Years of Protection in 
Canada (1908). 

Shortt, A., Imperial Preferential Trade 
from a Canadian Point of View (1904). 

Stalker, A., Taxation of Land Values in 
Western Canada (1914). 

Stevenson, J. A., “Fiscal Politics in Can¬ 
ada” {Edinburgh Review, July, 1922). 

Villard, H. G., and Willoughby, W. W., 
The Canadian Budgetary System 
(1918). 

Vineberg, S., Provincial and Local Taxation 
in Canada (1912). 

White, Sir T., The Story of Canada's War 
Finance (1921). 


VIII. Some Social Experiments and 
Problems 

British Columbia, Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, The Agricultural Journal (es¬ 
pecially July-December, 1922). 

Dominion Department of Soldiers’ Civil 
Reestablishment, Canada's Work for 
Disabled Soldiers (1920). 

Dominion Department of Labour, Labour 
Gazette (monthly statement of employ¬ 
ment and unemployment); Proceedings 
of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Inter¬ 
national Association of Public Employ¬ 
ment Services, September 20-22, 1920; 
Annual Reports; Report on Strikes and 
Lockouts in Canada, 1902-16. 

United States: Bureau of Labour Statistics, 
Proceedings ofjhe Ninth Annual Meet¬ 
ing. . . . Employment Services, Sep¬ 
tember 7-9, 1921; Bulletins, Nos. 74, 
76, 86, 98 and 233. 

Report of the British Columbia Commission 
on Labour (1914). 

Report of the Elevator Commission (1910). 

Report of the Ontario Commission on Em¬ 
ployment (1916). 

Report of the Royal Commission on Indus¬ 
trial Relations (Ottawa, 1919). 

Report to the British Board of Trade on 
Canadian Industrial Disputes Act (by 
Sir George Askwirth, 1913). 

Saskatchewan Commission of Cooperation 
and Markets, Annual Reports. 

Statutes of Canada, Employment Offices 
Coordination Act (1918). 

Adams, T., Rural Planning and Develop¬ 
ment (Ottawa, 1917). 

“Agrarian Movement in Canada” {Quar¬ 
terly Review, January, 1921). 

“Canadian Government’s Plan to Handle 
Unemployment” {U. S. Monthly La¬ 
bour Review, February, 1919). 

Chicanot, E. L., “The Canadian Soldier on 
the Land {United Empire, April, 1922). 

Clark, W. C., “The Country Elevator in 
the Canadian West” {Queen's Quar¬ 
terly, vol. xxiii). ' 

Council for Social Service of the Church of 
England in Canada, Bulletins, Nos. 
42, 43. 

“Divorce,” Canadian Law Times, xxxvii, 
pp. 687 ff.; xl, pp. 337 ff. Board v. 
Board (1919), A. C. 956; Walker v. 


Social and Economic Conditions in Canada 


307 


Walker (1919), A. C. 946; Kennedy, 
The Constitution of Canada, pp. 395 ff. 

Douglas, P. H., and Derry K., “The Mini¬ 
mum Wage in Canada” {Journal of 
Political Economy, April, 1922). 

Edwards, G. W., “The Employment Serv¬ 
ice of Canada” {U. S. Monthly Labour 
Review, August, 1919). 

Employment Service of Canada, Bulletins, 
August 1, 1921-November 1, 1922: 
(discontinued). 

Good, W. C., Production and Taxation in 
Canada from the Farmers* Standpoint 
(1919). 

“The Farmers’ Movement in Canada” 
{Dalhousie Review, January, 1923). 

Irvine, W., The Farmer in Politics (1921). 

Jackson, G. E,, “Unemployment in Eastern 
Canada” {Economic Journal, June, 
1920). 

Lapointe, Mgr. E., “L’organization syndi- 
caliste catholique au Canada” {L*Ac¬ 
tion Frangaise, fevrier, 1922). 

Macklin, T., Efficient Marketing for Agri¬ 
culture. 

McNeill, G. E., The Labour Movement 
(1887). 

Michell, H., Profit-Sharing and Producers* 
Cooperation in Canada (Queen’s Uni¬ 
versity: Bulletins of History and 
Economics, no. 26). 

“The Cooperative Store in Canada” 
{Queen*s Quarterly, vol. xxiii). 

Moorhouse, H., Deep Furrows. 


Powell, G. H., Cooperation in Agriculture. 

Robertson, G. D., “Canada’s Programme 
for Meeting Unemployment” {Ameri¬ 
can Labour Legislation Review, March, 
1921). 

Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Com¬ 
pany, The Cooperative News (in prog¬ 
ress). 

Selekman, “Nine Years of the Canadian 
Act” {Survey, March 31, 1917). 

Staples, M. H. (Ed.), The Challenge of Agri¬ 
culture: The Story of the United Farmers 
of Ontario (1921). 

Stevenson, J. A., “The Agrarian Move¬ 
ment in Canada” {Edinburgh Review, 
July, 1920). 

Stewart, Bryce M., The Unemployment 
Service of Canada (Queen’s Univeisil;^ 
Bulletins of History and Economics, 
July, 1919). 

The Farmers* Platform (ed. by the Canadian 
Council of Agriculture, Winnipeg, 1917.) 

Trade and Labour Congress of Canada, 
Annual Reports. 

Tremblay, G., “Le premier Congres de la 
Confederation des travailleurs catho- 
liques du Canada” {L*Action Frangaise, 
septembre, 1922). 

“Unemployment in Canada” {Survey, 
May, 1922). 

United Grain Growers Ltd., Annual Re¬ 
ports; The Grain Growers* Guide (in 
progress); Farmers in Business for Ten 
Successful Years, 1906-16. 


A Plan for State Labor Statistics 


By Leo Woliman 

New School for Social Research, New York City 


A lthough statistics have been 
collected by public authorities in 
this country for many years, it still 
seems necessary, under some circum¬ 
stances, to make a case for them. Pub¬ 
lic legislative bodies are willing to ap¬ 
propriate money for legislation and 
administration but not for statistics. 
It is already clear, however, that the 
need for extensive and reliable statistics 
in the many fields of public activity is 
almost as completely established as is 
the need for legislation and administra¬ 
tion. In the absence of regular and 
reliable information the public in the 
typical complex American community 
must fall back for its judgments on 
hunches and imagination. It is only 
when information is currently fed to 
members of the community that they 
can become informed on such matters 
as the state of employment, the pre¬ 
vailing standards of living, hours of 
work, hazards of industry and similar 
questions. 

Need for Public Reports 

Just as the individual business man 
is kept informed of the state of his 
business by an examination of his 
balance sheet, by reports on cost ac¬ 
counting, so the general public must 
look for its information on the state of 
the community in the reports, statisti¬ 
cal and non-statistical, of its public 
agencies. It is useless to turn to voters 
as the source of programs of sound 
public policy, unless they are supplied 
with accurate materials on the basis of 
which such policy can be discovered 
and provided. That public informa¬ 
tion meets needs of this kind is all the 
time attested by the avidity with which 


the facts from public reports are seized 
upon by agencies of public information 
and by members of the public itself. 

The utility of public reports are not, 
however, limited to the function of 
providing public education. They have 
a more specific and immediate purpose. 
Those citizens of an American common¬ 
wealth who urge the enactment of child 
labor legislation, of workmen’s com¬ 
pensation laws, of safety acts, and of 
restrictions on the work of women are 
usually not content to stop with the 
enactment of legislation. Whenever 
they have the interests of the com¬ 
munity at heart they desire to know 
how effective this legislation is; what 
obstacles in administration it encoun¬ 
ters; how efficiently their public serv¬ 
ants are administering the laws; and 
what measures are being taken to 
sharpen and improve administration. 
On matters of this kind they cannot 
rely upon general statements from 
administrative officers. They must 
insist upon seeing the accounts. The 
taxpayer calls periodically for a state¬ 
ment of revenue and expenditures and 
receives it from his public servants. 
In the same way men and women citi¬ 
zens call for an accounting from the 
administrators of child labor laws, 
compensation laws and the like so that 
they may also estimate the work of 
their representatives. 

Even if public information and re¬ 
port had no other use but this, substan¬ 
tial expenditures for its collection and 
distribution would be entirely justified. 
But it fortunately happens in the 
course of administration that executive 
officers themselves require for the 
efficiency of their own administration 


308 


A Plan for State Labor Statistics 


309 


the same or similar types of data. The 
chief of an inspection bureau, who has 
under his direction a hundred or more 
factory inspectors, cannot rely on a 
perusal of occasional reports of his 
subordinates for an estimate of the 
quality of the work of his department. 
He must make his general survey; must 
compare the work of his own bureau 
with that of similar bureaus in other 
states; must contrast the reports from 
one section of the commonwealth with 
those from another; must, in short, 
have that statistical equivalent of a 
balance sheet and of a system of cost 
accounting which the individual manu¬ 
facturer finds so indispensable in the 
operation of his own business enter¬ 
prise. 

Problems of Duplication 

This dependence of public adminis¬ 
tration on periodic information creates 
in a country like the United States real 
and increasingly diflficult problems. 
Probably in no country of the world has 
there been so rapid a growth of state 
activities as here. The division of 
responsibility between state and federal 
governments has created problems 
which make the collection of informa¬ 
tion even more difficult. There is 
complaint on all sides of the duplica¬ 
tion of statistical effort. Manufactur¬ 
ers and business men are annoyed at 
the great volume of questionnaires 
and forms which they are asked to fill 
out. 

In a great many cases, federal and 
state agencies are in pursuit of pre- 
ciselv the same information. The 
Commonw^ealth Employment Bureau 
is interested in the state of employ¬ 
ment. The Federal Reserve Board, a 
federal agency, because of its concern 
about business conditions, also wants 
to know about the state of employ¬ 
ment. Likewise the United States 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is 


charged with the function of supplying 
general information on the state of 
labor to the whole country, has the 
same interest. Unless account is taken 
of this overlapping and provision is 
made for a proper division of labor, the 
result is duplication, frequently con¬ 
fusion, and always irritation. No 
matter who collects the necessary in¬ 
formation, and no matter how many 
agencies repeat each other’s efforts, the 
cost is ultimately borne by the tax¬ 
payer. Under the circumstances it is 
clearly the wisest procedure to adopt 
that system which yields the most 
satisfactory data at the smallest possi¬ 
ble expense. 

Results Available for Federal 
Agencies 

Experience with conditions such as 
these in this country has brought stu¬ 
dents of the problem to the conclusion 
that it is most economical and most 
satisfactory to have state agencies ex¬ 
tend the field of their statistical in¬ 
quiries and to make the results of their 
survey available for federal agencies. 
Already in states like New York, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, Wisconsin and Ohio, the 
state authorities continue with the 
collection of statistics, add to them 
when necessary, subscribe to the forms 
and methods agreeable to the federal 
agencies, and then make their material 
available for the latter. In this way 
existing agencies merely extend the 
scope of their activities and permit 
federal administrative organizations to 
act as clearing houses for information 
collected within the extensive geo¬ 
graphical area of the United States. 

Need for Labor Statistics 

Wliat has been said concerning the 
field of general public statistics is of 
course wholly applicable to that of 
labor statistics. Here if anything the 
need for reliable and continuous mate- 


310 


The Annals of the American Academy 


rial is greater than elsewhere. The 
issues on which public interest centers 
are difficult of settlement. They are 
the source of deep and lasting hostilities 
and they frequently involve the com¬ 
munity in violent and costly trials. 
Nowhere, more than here, would it 
seem more desirable to bend every 
effort to raise the plane of discussion, to 
make opinion rest on fact, and to assure 
the various elements in the community 
that their legislative mandates are 
being faithfully and competently ad¬ 
ministered. 

The degree in which a body of exten¬ 
sively disseminated facts would serve 
public purposes can be best understood 
by a detailed examination of the func¬ 
tions which are entrusted, for example, 
to such an agency as the Pennsylvania 
Department of Labor and Industry. 
To this department in general is as¬ 
signed the administration of a great 
body of labor laws now and in the past 
enacted by the legislatures of the state. 
Enumeration of the subordinate bu¬ 
reaus of this department shows how 
completely these laws touch every 
phase of labor activity and of the labor 
problem in a great industrial state. 
The officers of these bureaus are 
charged with establishing and pro¬ 
tecting the standards of woman and 
child labor; with inspecting the safety 
of work in factories and mines and with 
the formulation of safety codes and 
standards; with observing the course of 
industrial employment in the state and 
with making it easier for unemployed 
to find jobs and for employers to fill 
vacancies; with the administration of 
accident insurance laws; with the re¬ 
habilitation of persons disabled in 
industry; and with limiting the field of 
industrial warfare. 

It is, of course, clear that none of 
these agencies can perform their func¬ 
tions effectively without a foundation 
of extensive facts. These agencies 


must first of all be acquainted with the 
important facts concerning their prob¬ 
lem. Their administration must also 
yield the kind of information which will 
satisfy public curiosity and enable di¬ 
rectors of bureaus to test the compe¬ 
tence of their staff. To illustrate the 
variety of data which they need in their 
work, and which they collect while they 
are pursuing it, it is advantageous to 
discuss in some detail the functions of 
several of the more important bureaus 
of the Department of Labor and Indus¬ 
try in the state of Pennsylvania. 

Usefulness Along Industrial Lines 

Regardless of what such agencies 
have done in the past, there can be 
little doubt but that a properly organ¬ 
ized and well-qualified bureau of medi¬ 
ation and arbitration has few limits to 
its usefulness in a contemporary iVmer- 
ican industrial commonwealth. Those 
familiar with the nature and origin of 
industrial disputes are well aware of the 
fact that they frequently arise from 
small and- trifling episodes and irrita¬ 
tions which if they were discovered 
early enough would rarely emerge in 
the form of battles. The difficulty is 
that the flame is ignited, the fire is 
allowed to smoulder for months and 
even years and then to every one’s 
surprise, breaks out in a general con¬ 
flagration. 

A w’ell-qualified state bureau of 
mediation and arbitration would so 
organize itself as to have at its 
disposal the information which would 
permit it to perform its own function 
more efficiently and to enlist public 
opinion when the occasion demanded 
it. Advanced industrial states in this 
country already collect data about 
industrial conditions which are indis¬ 
pensable to effective mediation and 
conciliation. It requires only a slight 
survey of the nature of industrial dis¬ 
putes to discover the kind of data on 


A Plan for State Labor Statistics 


311 


which arbitration agencies must de- 
pend. 

Kind of Data 

First. Since a conciliation bureau is 
concerned with the settlement of dis¬ 
putes, one of its earliest duties is the 
creating of an organization equipped to 
report actual and impending industrial 
disturbances. It must itself know 
where and how industrial disputes take 
place and it is the better part of wisdom 
to take the public into its confidence. 
From the angle of historical analysis, 
no body of data has served a more use¬ 
ful purpose than the statistics of strikes 
and lockouts collected from 1880 to 
1905 by the U. S. Bureau of Labor and 
published in those great volumes on 
strikes and lockouts in the United 
States. In these documents it was 
possible to trace the changes in the 
number of industrial disturbances, their 
magnitude, the interesting variations 
in the causes of industrial strife, the 
relation of union to non-union strikes, 
their duration, their direct and indirect 
effects, and the manner of their settle¬ 
ment. It would be hard for a prospec¬ 
tive mediator to find a better elemen¬ 
tary text on the nature of his problem 
than is furnished by the material in the 
reports of the Federal Bureau of Labor. 
A record of the same kind for a state 
like Pennsylvania cannot fail to serve 
the ends of industrial peace both by 
furnishing conciliators with the mate¬ 
rials for their job and by acquainting 
the public with the extent and gravity 
of the problem. 

Second. Disputes in industry arise be¬ 
cause of issues between employers and 
employee which they find they cannot 
settle amicably. Of such issues the 
adjustment of wages has proved by 
experience one of the most trouble¬ 
some. If the dispute is to be adjusted 
fairly and swiftly, either by the direct 
intervention of the public mediator or 


by the force of public opinion, there 
must always be quickly available the 
data which lead to a sound judgment 
on the merits of the dispute. Many of 
the differences over wages occur in 
organized trades and industries. The 
organizations of workingmen in these 
places keep full records of their basic 
wage scales and of their differentials. 
Already the state of Pennsylvania col¬ 
lects such material for the use of the 
U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. All 
of what the Federal Bureau gets and 
much more that remains in the files 
could be easily published in a form 
available for public scrutiny and for the 
more effective use of the Bureau of 
Mediation and Arbitration. If that 
were done, all interested in the con¬ 
troversy could make comparisons be¬ 
tween union rates in peaceful industries 
and in industries where a strike is on; 
or between union rates and wages in a 
non-union, strike-bound industry; or 
between union rates in Pennsylvania 
and Massachusetts; or between the 
rates within the state itself in such cit¬ 
ies as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, 
York and Scranton. 

Once disputed issues become reduced 
to comparative terms, they become the 
more easily the subject of reasonable 
adjustment. Where, moreover, indus¬ 
tries operate outside the jurisdiction of 
trade unions and are manned largely 
by unskilled and semi-skilled workers, 
it is possible to supplement statistics of 
union rates of wages with data such as 
the rate of wages of common labor. 
Directors of state bureaus of labor 
statistics and private statisticians who 
have worked on the problem testify to 
the utility of a measure of fluctuations 
in the rate of wages of common labor. 
It requires only the original definitions 
and the contacts to make available for 
any large industrial state material of 
this kind. 

We have for almost a decade lived in 


312 


The Annals of the American Academy 


a period of marked fluctuations in 
prices. Wage changes do not alone 
tell the story of the upward and down¬ 
ward movements in workingmen’s 
standards of living. Whatever wage 
statistics are used must constantly be 
corrected to allow for the variations in 
the purchasing power of a money in¬ 
come. In some places inquiries cur¬ 
rently conducted by the Federal Bu¬ 
reau of Labor Statistics have made 
available the data on the movement in 
costs of living and in the retail prices of 
important articles of home consump¬ 
tion.^ Where such inquiry has not 
been made, it is incumbent on the state 
agency to make modest but adequate 
investigations into the matter and to 
report its findings currently to the 
public. What has just been said about 
wages and the cost of living applies 
with equal force to statistics on the 
hours of labor; and statistics on stand¬ 
ard hours of labor are even easier to 
collect than those of wages and the cost 
of living. 

Third. It is commonly supposed that 
employers and employees, whether 
organized or not, are constantly en¬ 
gaged in battle. We are moved by tlie 
spectacular and forget the millions who 
are working peacefully and the long 
intervals between great industrial bat¬ 
tles. The fact is, of course, that in a 
very large number of cases, representa¬ 
tives of the men and of the employers 
aVe constantly concerned with the task 
of creating the machinery of peaceful 
and reasonable adjustment. More 
often than is imagined these efforts are 
crowned with success, if only tempo¬ 
rary, and a substantial proportion of 
the industrial wage earners of the coun¬ 
try work under the terms of agree¬ 
ments satisfactory to both parties. 
These agreements represent industrial 

^ The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pub¬ 
lishes figures on cost of living in Philadelphia, 
Pittsburgh, and Scranton. 


codes. They fix the conditions of work 
in the shop; methods of wage pay¬ 
ments; the manner of discharge; and a, 
mass of detailed working rules. Each 
term of such an agreement constitutes, 
for the time being, an adjusted dispute. 

Codes of Educational Value 

Obviously such codes or agreements 
must be of tremendous educational 
value. A study of them should teach 
people, who are ignorant of the matter, 
how some employers and their help 
have learned to live amicably with one 
another. They should throw light on 
the reasonableness of employers’ or 
employees’ demands. To practised 
conciliators they should indicate the 
points of friction and the methods 
whereby such friction has in some 
industries been removed. If successful 
experience in the reduction of the area 
of industrial warfare is to have its in¬ 
fluence on new and future disputes, 
surely the records of this experience 
should be available for general educa¬ 
tion and for the immediate use of the 
mediator. Not only should the Bureau 
of Mediation and Arbitration be the 
repository for the records of successful 
experiments with peaceful adjustments, 
but carefully chosen accounts of these 
records should be put into the hands of 
the people of the state. 

In much the same way the work of 
the mediators themselves reveals the 
possibilities for adjustment that should 
become public property as quickly as is 
possible. It happens frequently in the 
course of a year that the Bureau of 
Mediation and Arbitration has settled 
one or two very stubborn disputes; it has 
made investigations which indicate the 
type of difficulty that makes for fric¬ 
tion; or it has employed a variant of an 
old principle of mediation which de¬ 
serves advertisement. As in the reports 
of the Massachusetts Bureau of Media¬ 
tion, such materials should be brought 


A Plan for State Labor Statistics 


313 


together, carefully edited, and distrib¬ 
uted. They will soon come to be 
generally read and even to be asked for. 

Need for Extensive Statistical 
Reporting 

The work of an inspection division, 
to cite a second bureau of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Department of Labor and In¬ 
dustry, reveals again the need for 
extensive statistical reporting. In this 
case, the numerical material must come 
largely from the administrative activ¬ 
ities of the bureau itself and not from 
general industrial facts, as in the case 
of the Bureau of Mediation and Arbi¬ 
tration. The ends of statistical col¬ 
lection are served when the director of 
the inspection service acquires detailed 
and comprehensive information on the 
operation of his bureau and when the 
citizens of the state learn about the 
effects of their laws. Not that a statis¬ 
tical exhibit is an adequate substitute 
for direct and personal supervision over 
the members of a staff of inspectors; 
but that it is a useful and often an 
effective check on personal observation. 

How far well-planned statistical 
tabulations lead to significant informa¬ 
tion on the nature and effect of in¬ 
spection laws is illustrated in the mate¬ 
rial contained in a recent report by the 
New York Department of Labor on 
statistics of factory, homework and 
mercantile inspection ^ and on mines 
and quarries, industrial diseases, and 
employment certificates. The report 
covers some 50 pages and presents in 
admirable statistical form the results of 
one year’s experience with the various 
types of inspection. 

Significant Information of Tables 

The tables, to mention only a few of 
the items, show the number of factory 

2 Annual Report of the Industrial Commission 
of the State of New York, year ending June 30, 
1920, p. 54 ff. 


inspections, classified by nature of work 
done, the number of visits and the num¬ 
ber of calls; the number of compliances 
with orders, classified by the nature of 
the infraction into administration, san¬ 
itation, accident prevention, fire pro¬ 
tection, children (prohibited occupa¬ 
tions), women and minors, day of rest, 
and payment of wages, and then fur¬ 
ther subclassified into 32 groups; pros¬ 
ecutions, similarly classified by nature 
of infraction as well as by the results of 
the prosecution. Another series of 
tables deals with violations of laws 
protecting children. They show the 
number of children found illegally em¬ 
ployed in factories; those found at pro¬ 
hibited employment; the number be¬ 
tween the ages of 14 and 16 found 
employed in factories; and the number 
working illegal hours. As was said 
before, these interesting statistical 
exhibits are not necessarily a proof of 
the adequate enforcement of the law, 
but they represent the types of infor¬ 
mation which those eharged with law 
enforcement should furnish periodically 
to the people of their state. 

With the exception of the statistical 
reports on Workmen’s Compensation 
and on the trend of employment, the 
materials from the other bureaus do 
not differ sufficiently from those of the 
Bureau of Inspection to make neces¬ 
sary a separate discussion of their prob¬ 
lems. What problems they have are 
common to all of the divisions of the 
Department of Labor and Industry and 
can be most profitably discussed with 
regard to the larger problem of the or¬ 
ganization of statistics in the depart¬ 
ment.^ 

® An additional word on statistics of employ¬ 
ment may still, hoAvever, be useful. In all of the 
great waves of unemployment in this country, 
analysis of the problem of idleness has been 
hindered by the lack of reliable statistics of em¬ 
ployment and unemployment. Estimates before 
the President’s Unemployment Conference 
varied from one another by several millions. 


314 


The Annals or the American Academy 


The Organization of Labor 
Statistics and Information 

Enough has been said to show how 
essential the extensive collection and 
publication of statistical material is. 
Without it the community is ill-in¬ 
formed or not at all, has no check on 
the performance of its public servants, 
and the administrators themselves may 
well perform their functions in the 
dark. The real problem, then, consists 
in the establishment of the proper sta¬ 
tistical machinery. Fortunately, for 
this purpose the Pennsylvania Depart¬ 
ment of Labor and Industrv seems to 
possess sufficient legal authority to 
permit the collection and publication of 
a wide range of statistical data. There 
remains, consequently, the question 
of organization. 

All experience with such a task dic¬ 
tates the necessity of entrusting it to a 
trained and expert statistician, sup¬ 
ported by an adequate statistical staff 
and the necessary equipment. In a 
large department like that of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, the duties of the statistician and 
his staff are unavoidably twofold. 
He must first collect statistics inde¬ 
pendently and he must, second, receive 
some of his statistical materials from 
the several subordinate bureaus of the 
department. He functions, therefore, 


The realization of the utter dependence of solu¬ 
tion of the problem on adequate measures of un¬ 
employment led to an inquiry into the methods 
for improving and extending our statistical 
measures in this field. The first fruits of this 
inquiry were a reiteration of the facts long known, 
that the reports of employment exchanges do not 
and cannot furnish acceptable indexes of the 
course of employment and that personal observa¬ 
tion brings conclusions of an even more question¬ 
able natme. In the judgment of trained stat¬ 
isticians who have just completed a study of the 
question, the recommendations made by the 
committee on the statistics of employment and 
unemployment will yield that minimum of in¬ 
formation, essential to a knowledge of the true 
course of industrial employment. 


both as an original collector of statistics 
and as the supervisor over statistics not 
originally collected by himself and his 
own immediate staff. Where the sta¬ 
tistical materials of a constituent bu¬ 
reau are simple and not voluminous, 
that bureau needs no separate statis¬ 
tician. A competent clerk under the 
direction of the department’s statisti¬ 
cian, can draw up the proper forms for 
collecting information, prepare the 
desirable tabulations, and then submit 
from time to time the statistical data to 
the department’s statistician. 

With such a division as the Bureau of 
Compensation, however, w hose adminis¬ 
trative functions are so directly depend¬ 
ent on accurate and complete actuarial 
and statistical data and whose burden 
in this respect is so heavy, a full-time 
statistician or actuary is required for 
that bureau alone. But here, too, it is 
desirable that the department’s statis¬ 
tician confer with the statistician of the 
bureau on matters of form and tabula¬ 
tion and that there be made available 
for him such materials as he may wish 
to use for the general purposes of the 
department. 

Because the Department of Labor 
and Industry should collect certain 
types of information not already col¬ 
lected by its constituent bureaus and 
because some supervision must be 
exercised over the statistical output of 
the bureaus, it is by all odds the best 
plan to associate the statistician and his 
staff with the executive authority in 
the department. In this way the sta¬ 
tistical officer furnishes the executive 
authority with the information it needs 
and controls at the same time the sta¬ 
tistical product of' the divisions. A 
plan of this character is in effect in the 
states of Massachusetts and New York 
and has there worked admirably. It is 
on somewhat the same principles, too, 
that the recent reorganization of Do¬ 
minion statistics in Canada, which has 



A Plan for State Labor Statistics 315 


alreadj^ produced such notable results, 
rests. 

General Functions 

So organized, the functions of this 
central statistical office are reasonably 
clear. It collects and publishes infor¬ 
mation which does not obviously fall 
within the jurisdiction of a constituent 
bureau. It exercises control and super¬ 
vision over statistics collected by such 
bureaus and receives their statistical 
product. Where authorized by the 
executive authority in the department, 
it plans and conducts special statistical 
investigations into matters, again not 
within the province of a subordinate 
bureau. And it assumes responsibility 
for the publications of the department. 

The effects of this form of organiza¬ 
tion are in the main very satisfactory. 
Under it the gathering of statistics and 
their use are centrally planned. The 
matter is not left to chance or to the 
whim of a bureau clerk. Responsibility 
for the form and content of the final 
statistical reports is on the general stat¬ 
istician of the board. Reports thus 
acquire a uniformity and comparability 
which they do not otherwise possess. 
It becomes possible, if the general stat¬ 
istician is a competent person, to plan 
a continuous series of statistical and 
non-statistical publications which it 
would be difficult to achieve under a 
more decentralized form of organiza¬ 
tion. 

The Budget 

I refrain from making any estimates 
of the budgetary requirements of such 
a statistical service. It could be no 
more than a guess. Much more de¬ 
tailed information than I now have is 
necessary before the estimate can be 
fairly made. Much turns in such an 
estimate on the present state of statis¬ 
tical equipment of the department; on 
the qualifications of the present clerical 


force; on the degree to whieh field 
agents of the existing bureaus can be 
employed in prosecuting statistical 
inquiries; on the use to which the avail¬ 
able funds for printing are now being 
put and on other matters of the same 
nature. It is, however, desirable to 
make two general observations that 
bear directly on the size and nature of 
the budget for a central statistical serv¬ 
ice. Trained and qualified statisti¬ 
cians have a high market value. The 
chief statistician in a department of 
labor and industry must possess a com- 
- bination of qualities not easy to find. 
He must combine expertness in statis¬ 
tical method with executive ability and 
experience. Such qualities bring sub¬ 
stantial salaries. 

The second observation concerns the 
nature of the budget. Experienced 
public statisticians testify unani¬ 
mously that highly segregated budg¬ 
etary provisions spell practical failure 
in administration. They find from 
practical experience that a lump 
sum appropriation allows that elastic¬ 
ity within the organization which is 
essential because it is as a practical 
matter difficult to foresee the burdens 
that will be imposed on the various 
members of the staff. While there is 
some difference of opinion on this point, 
the majority also hold that segregation 
into salaries and contingent expenses is 
also unwise. The existence of a con¬ 
tingent fund, it is observed, puts a 
premium on appointments even when 
there is at the time no need for addi¬ 
tions to the staff. 

Publications 

It, of course, stands to reason that all 
of the information accumulated by a 
large government department cannot, 
because of practical considerations, be 
published. That department has, how¬ 
ever, not discharged its obligations 
which does not currently issue a welL 


316 


The Annals or the American Academy 


chosen minimum of reports and publi¬ 
cations. The conduct of special in¬ 
vestigations and of a regular adminis¬ 
trative procedure that yields facts 
which are not promptly exposed to 
public scrutiny cannot be called suc¬ 
cessful public administration. Even 
for the use of administrative officers 
themselves, it is indubitably true that 
material lying unanalyzed in files is not 
nearly so useful as similar data which 
have been analyzed and interpreted in 
preparation for their publication. It 
is in the interest of sound administra¬ 
tion that a state department of labor 
and industry have a thoughtful pro¬ 
gram of publication and that it exert 
every possible effort to adhere to it. 

The publications and reports of such 
a department divide themselves into 
several groups in which it is rarely 
possible, or even desirable, to separate 
the statistical from the non-statistical 
elements. There is, first, the group of 
current, short reports, usually monthly, 
containing material that bears on the 
state of labor at the time of its publica¬ 
tion. First-rate examples of this type 
of publication are the monthly bulletins 
of the New York Industrial Commls- 
sionery formerly known as the Labor 
Market Bulletiny and the Massachusetts 
Industrial Review^ published quarterly. 
The New York bulletin contains, 
among other things, indexes of the 
course of wages and employment in the 
state. This material alone is of such 
importance that it has contributed to 
a country-wide recognition of the work 
of the statistical division of the New 
York Industrial Commission. The 
Massachusetts bulletin has a more 
varied content. In the issue of June, 
1921, which is typical, there is a general 
summary of industrial conditions in 
the state; excellent statistical reports 
on the number and membership of 
labor organizations in Massachusetts 
from 1911 to 1920 and on employment 


in Massachusetts for the quarter end¬ 
ing March 31, 1921; and a report of the 
State Board of Conciliation on the 
Boston Building Trades controversy. 
In form and in content both of these 
reports attain a high standard of excel¬ 
lence. 

Monthly Bulletins 

As the result of a survey of the expe¬ 
rience of several states with current 
statistics of labor and of the require¬ 
ments for such information, the con¬ 
clusion is reached that a monthly bulle¬ 
tin covering the following items would 
fill the immediate needs of a progressive 
department of labor and industry: 

1. Numbers of persons on the payroll 
of factories, one week in each month, 
classified into detailed industrial divi¬ 
sions. 

2. Total wages paid for the same 
week, similarly classified. 

3. Rate of pay for common labor, 
shown preferably by geographical dis¬ 
trict and by industry. 

4. Changes in the rates of wages 
reported during the month. 

5. Cost of living and retail food 
prices either taken from the report of 
the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or 
collected independently where such 
reports are not available. 

6. The volume of building, as an 
index of business conditions. 

7. Reports of bureaus in the depart¬ 
ment only when the quick publication 
is necessary and when the data have 
been subjected to adequate analysis. 

Quarterly and Annual Reports 

The next group of periodic reports 
are those which should appear quar¬ 
terly and annually. Where a compre¬ 
hensive monthly report is issued, the 
need for quarterly reports is not so 
urgent. Largely for brief reports of 
bureaus and for such matter as the 
degree of unemployment among organ- 


A Plan for State Labor Statistics 


317 


ized workers is the quarterly report 
particularly useful. More important 
by far, however, is a program for an¬ 
nual publications of the department. 
These by their very nature will combine 
statistical with other material and as a 
minimum include the following: 

1. Report of the department and all 
of its constituent bureaus. This should 
be a carefully prepared document. 
While it should not repeat material 
already published in the monthly or 
quarterly bulletins, it should contain a 
comprehensive and systematic account 
of the activities of divisions of the de¬ 
partment. It is highly desirable, not 
only on the score of convenience, but 
also because such a practice will teach 
responsible bureau officers to avoid 
delay, that the annual report appear in 
a single volume at an early date after 
the close of the year (calendar or fiscal, 
depending on practice). The issue of 
bureau reports as separates, scattered 
over a year, makes their use incon¬ 
venient and encourages delay in their 
preparation. 

2. Annotated edition of laws and 
court decisions pertaining to labor. 

3. Trade union rates of wages and 
hours of labor. 

Special Periodic Reports 

The third group includes periodic 
reports appearing at longer intervals 
and the results of special investigations. 
The Industrial Directory of Pennsylva¬ 
nia, now published by the Department 
of Internal Affairs, is a report of the 
first kind. It should be continued. 
In its last section it lists trade unions 
in the state and gives the membership 
of the national organizations with 
which these unions are affiliated. Since 
this material is available elsewhere, it 
would be more useful to give only the 
membership of the unions in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, a type of information much more 
difficult to get elsewhere. Where spe¬ 


cial investigations are the subject of 
general interest, reports on the investi¬ 
gation should be published. The Penn¬ 
sylvania Department of Labor and 
Industry has made a number of investi¬ 
gations into what seem important and 
interesting matters, but the reports 
have not been issued. 

General Reports 

The fourth group includes current 
rulings of the board, formulations of 
new codes and standards, posters and 
the like, whose publication presents no 
special problems. 

Standards of Reporting 

The usefulness of government publi¬ 
cations is a function not only of the 
intrinsic merit of their content but also 
of the form and manner in which they 
are issued. Reports come into general 
circulation when they conform to 
standards which commend themselves 
to the critical intelligence of the com¬ 
munity. Such standards are, of course, 
very great in number. But an exam¬ 
ination of the experience of public de¬ 
partments with reports of one kind or 
another is indicative of the salient 
importance of qualities of the following 
kind: 

1. Timeliness: Much of the current 
information which is issued by public 
agencies, has an almost immediate 
administrative use, either by private 
parties or by other public departments. 
Private employers use reports of trade 
union scales of wages and of hours as 
guides in making contracts with their 
own workers. The Federal Reserve 
Board employs statistics of employ¬ 
ment and of wage movements in its 
forecasts of the trend of business and in 
determining its banking policy. Both 
business men and public agencies, 
charged with administrative duties, 
have complained of tardiness in the 
issuance of public documents. Reports 


318 


The Annals of the American Academy 


of the activities of state departments, 
likewise, influencing as they should 
contemplated legislative and executive 
policy, cannot appear too soon after 
the close of the administrative period. 
If a check on the efficiency of adminis¬ 
tration is to serve its purpose, it must 
be available early enough to permit its 
effective application. 

2. Clarity and Precision: Public re¬ 
ports should be reliable; they should 
serve as the accredited and accepted 
sources of primary information on the 
subject; they should have the reputa¬ 
tion of dealing honestly with facts, no 
matter how controversial their nature. 
A conviction that factual reports are 
biased is fatal to the success of such 
undertakings. The opportunities for 
departure from standards of this kind, 
are, unfortunately, many. I cull a few 
excerpts from current reports of state 
bureaus which represent reporting that 
is not clear and is probably inaccurate, 
too. “Total and involuntary unem¬ 
ployment” states one report, “reached 
its peak” on a certain date, approxi¬ 
mating several hundred thousands of 
“totally and involuntarily unemployed 
persons as expressed in man-power and 
in working hours.” The careful reader 
will pause at the terms “man-power” 
and “working hours” and ask wffiat 
they mean. Another excerpt states 
that efforts were made to “ascertain 
the number of seasonal occupations 
and industries in various parts of the 
state. Methods were w^orked out 
whereby these seasonal industries and 
occupations became more regular and 
less periodical throughout the year.” 
Here is an accomplishment of great 
significance. Many have wrestled with 
the problem of seasonal variations in 
employment for years. What are the 
methods whereby this agency has pro¬ 
ceeded in its program of regularization 
and how successful have its efforts 
been.^ On these matters the report 


sheds no further light. Similar exam¬ 
ples of the same type of reporting can 
be easily added to these exhibits. An¬ 
other form of ineptitude in reporting, 
which will be noted only by the metic¬ 
ulous but which anyhow tends to dis¬ 
courage confidence in the reports, is 
illustrated in such statements as that 
“45.498 per cent of accidents is due to 
carelessness and 30.225 per cent to non- 
preventable causes” or that “.889 per 
cent [apparently an error] of the appli¬ 
cants referred to jobs were accepted.” 
A mere appearance of precision, w here 
none actually exists, is on all counts to 
be avoided. 

3. Continuity: The fields of public 
interest are always shifting and grow¬ 
ing. This condition tempts reporting 
agencies to enlarge the scope of their 
reports by constantly including new 
materials. If such extension could be 
achieved without loss to the old mate¬ 
rial, no one could quarrel with it. But 
this is rarely the case. The addition 
of a new statistical series means usually 
the relinquishment of an old one. On 
this matter there is unanimity of opin¬ 
ion among students of statistical re¬ 
ports. Continuity is preferable to 
exhaustiveness. A continuous wage 
series running back to 1914 is much 
more useful than a discontinuous series 
of wage statistics, supplemented by a 
new report on building permits. Unless 
the need for new reporting is most 
urgent, the ends of good statistical 
reporting will be best served by the 
maintenance of modest but continuous 
series of data. 

4. Uniformity^ convenience, com¬ 
pleteness, and circulation: Those ac¬ 
customed to use state reports have 
little difficulty in finding and using the 
publications of states like New York 
and Massachusetts. The reports are 
issued in attractive and recognizable 
form. Variations from the form are 
made infrequently and when they are 


A Plan for State Labor Statistics 


319 


made are slight. They have an iden¬ 
tity and when used convey a feeling of 
familiarity. In physical construction 
they conform to high standards of con¬ 
ception and workmanship. Tables have 
been carefully planned, obviously with 
an eye toward clarity and exactness. 
The materials are not scrappy but are 
designed to present a fairly complete 
picture of the subject. All of these 
qualities combine to give a large circu¬ 
lation to the reports. People know 
where to find and how to use them. 
Moreover, there is available in both 
states complete lists of publications, 
indicating those out of print and those 
still available for circulation. Every 
state department, which has as one of 
its important functions the issue of 
reports, should publish at least an¬ 
nually a complete and clear list of its 
publications. 

Conclusions 

1. The collection of statistical and 
other material is a prime function of 
state administrative agencies. Col¬ 
lection and distribution of such mate¬ 


rials enables the community and execu¬ 
tive officers to follow intelligently the 
course of legislative and administrative 
policy and to measure the effectiveness 
of both. 

2. The collection of labor statistics 
in a state department of labor and 
industry should be entrusted to an 
adequately staffed statistical division 
in charge of an expert statistician. 
This division should be assigned di¬ 
rectly to the executive authority of the 
department. 

3. The functions of the statistical 
division are the direct collection of 
statistical materials, the undertaking 
of special investigations, supervision 
and control over statistical work of 
subordinate bureaus, and the assump¬ 
tion of responsibility for the prompt 
publication of all current and special 
reports. 

4. The department should make a 
comprehensive program of publications, 
conforming to the standards described 
in the last section. This program 
should be adhered to as closely as are 
the other functions of the department. 


Book Department 


Manchuria—Land of Opportunities. Pp. 

113. New York—South Manchuria 

Railway, 1922. Compiled and Published 

by Thomas F. Logan, Inc., New York. 

A most excellent and useful compilation 
of the statistics and facts to show the recent 
wonderful economic expansion of Manchu¬ 
ria under Japanese influence, which is, as 
the book truly suggests, a modern “Eco¬ 
nomic Miracle.” The book contains over 
one hundred pages of information including 
many charts and statistical tables. In ad¬ 
dition there are about fifty-eight pages of 
excellent pictures apparently selected with 
a view to emphasizing the up-to-date, mod¬ 
ern character of the recent industrial ex¬ 
pansion. About two-thirds of the discus¬ 
sion is devoted to a brief survey of the 
natural resources, climate, manufacturing 
and commercial development. The re¬ 
mainder of the book deals with the activities 
of the South Manchuria Railway. 

The activities of this great company are 
surprising in their variety and extent. Its 
investments are stated as about two hun¬ 
dred and forty million dollars with an actual 
value of seven hundred million dollars. 
One-half of its financial obligations are held 
by the Japanese Government which, in 
addition, guarantees six per cent interest on 
the securities held by the public. It con¬ 
trols 686 miles of railroad in Manchuria and 
1,153 miles in Chosen (Korea). It has 
constructed and is operating the most im¬ 
portant harbor works, warehouses, coal 
mines, steel plants, public utilities, modern 
hotels, hospitals and schools in Manchuria. 
It maintains industrial research, mineral 
surveys and agricultural experiment sta¬ 
tions. Its activities suggest almost an 
economic monopoly. 

As might be expected, the book seems to 
have a certain amount of propaganda pur¬ 
pose. Emphasis is placed on the large 
amount of railroad and industrial equip¬ 
ment purchased from the United States. 
The great economic benefits resulting from 
Japanese development are stressed. But 
the facts presented make it rather diflicult 
for us to accept the suggestion that the 


South Manchuria Company is entirely of 
economic significance and not political in 
its aspects. Almost exclusive control of 
transportation and industrial concessions 
does not tend to keep the trade door open 
for other countries. The partial economic 
control of 170,000 Japanese residents over 
a population of 27 million Chinese suggests 
many of the factors in the Shantung Con¬ 
troversy. However, as the book states, it 
does not attempt to discuss the political 
situation. 

For anyone interested in Manchuria the 
book is extremely valuable as it contains 
the essential facts about the development 
of the country which cannot be readily 
found elsewhere. 

Alfred G. White. 

Ross, Edward Alsworth. The Social 
Trend. Pp. 235. Price, $1.75. New 
York: The Century Company. 

Fourteen essays, dealing with various 
aspects of contemporary American life, 
comprise this volume. Combined, they 
represent the “attempt of an observer at 
the masthead to judge the probable course 
of the ship, to call out what lies ahead and 
how the ship must bear to starboard or to 
port in order to avoid trouble.” 

The topics discussed cover a compre¬ 
hensive range: immigration, birth control, 
folk depletion in rural America, status of 
women, social service, prohibition, war, 
freedom of speech, the legal profession, etc. 
On all of these. Professor Ross holds definite 
views, which he expresses in a way that 
leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind of his 
attitude. The language is simple, frank, 
fearless, unequivocal. 

Most of the essays included were pub¬ 
lished previously in a number of dissimilar 
magazines. Nevertheless—and this is in¬ 
dicative of the outstanding feature of the 
book as a whole—whether the author is 
talking to the learned fellows of his guild, 
the members of the American Sociological 
Society, or the readers of the Delineator, the 
style, its vigor, its popular appeal, yet its 
cold logic, is the same. 

320 


i 



Book Department 


321 


Professor Ross can “sell” sociology. He 
has been “selling” it successfully for years. 
There are those to whom this is to his dis¬ 
credit; to others, among whom the reviewer 
unblushingly takes his place, it is his pecul¬ 
iar value. One can open this book on any 
page and enjoy it; anyone can read it, prof¬ 
itably. Whether one agrees always or not, 
no matter on what subject he speaks. Pro¬ 
fessor Ross deserves a hearing; no matter 
to whom he speaks, his style will always 
obtain one. It is a racy, readable and 
stimulating volume. 

James H. S. Bossard. 

Cassel, Gustav. Money and Foreign Ex¬ 
change After 19H. Pp. 287. Price, 
$2.25. New York: The Macmillan 
Company, 1922. 

The keynote of this volume is “stabili¬ 
zation.” In the earlier chapters Professor 
Cassel convincingly demonstrates the re¬ 
lationship between inflation of currencies 
and rising prices throughout the world, 
during the war, carefully refuting the argu¬ 
ments of those who have contended that 
the large volume of money was issued 
because of a demand for it. Responsibility 
for a large part of the difliculty is placed 
squarely on the management of the various 
central banks. When capital was scarce 
and a large amount of saving highly im¬ 
portant, they should have raised their dis¬ 
count rates, undertaking the task of 
accommodating the supply of money to the 
needs of the community in such a way that 
the general level of prices would not be 
altered. Instead, they followed the line 
of least resistance, keeping their rates low 
and thereby encouraging inflation. 

With the view that pre-war prices are to 
be considered normal, and that attempts 
should be made through deflation or other¬ 
wise to bring prices back to that level, the 
author has no sympathy and little patience. 
Injustices would be done to a very large 
number of people for the sake of fancied 
justice to a few. Instead of deflation, sta¬ 
bilization should be attempted, one part of 
the plan being devaluation. Little harm 
results from either high or low prices, but a 
vast amount of it from fluctuating prices. 
Throughout the volume strong emphasis 


is placed by Professor Cassel upon the 
theory of “purchasing power parity” which 
he has for several years been urging. Like 
most theories, it cannot readily be stated 
in brief space without a sacrifice of clarity, 
but the general idea is that a depreciation of 
the currency of one country (say Germany) 
in terms of the money of another (say the 
United States) has in itself little effect on 
the commercial relations between the two, 
since internal prices are soon altered in 
such way as to prevent such an effect. 
Thus the temporary advantage to German 
exporters that comes through the deprecia¬ 
tion of the mark in the United States is soon 
counteracted by the rise of prices in Ger¬ 
many, and the temporary advantage dis¬ 
appears. The significance of this in con¬ 
nection with such unwise legislation as the 
“American valuation plan,” which was so 
widely discussed in connection with our 
tariff law, could be easily developed if space 
permitted. 

Criticisms of Professor Cassel are most 
apt to be directed against the apparent 
rigidity of some of his theories, such as, for 
example, his presentation of the quantity 
theory of money. His views are, however, 
gaining wide acceptance. Moreover, he is 
one of the European economists whose 
services are most widely in demand, and 
whose reputation for ability and for con¬ 
structive leadership is growing in this post¬ 
war period. His position is of course 
strengthened by the fact that his own 
country (Sweden) was a neutral during the 
war. 

Cunningham, William J. American Rail¬ 
roads, Government Control and Reconstruc¬ 
tion Policies. Pp. 409. Price, $3.00. 

Chicago: A. W. Shaw Company. 

While the last decade does not show a 
record of material progress of American 
railroads which compares favorably with 
the record of former years, it has neverthe¬ 
less been a singularly eventful period of 
American railroad history. The interest 
which the occurrences of this period have 
aroused is indicated by the remarkable 
amount of writing about the railroads which 
has been done in the last three years. 
Most of what has been published has ap- 


22 


322 


The Annals of the American Academy 


peared in periodicals, newspapers, pam¬ 
phlets and official reports, but there have al¬ 
so been several books added to the somewhat 
meager list of authentic and serviceable 
volumes dealing with American railway 
transportation. 

This work of Professor Cunningham’s is 
a satisfying addition to the list. It is 
primarily an account of our experience with 
government operation of railroads during 
the World War, though it includes also a 
concise account of the activities of the 
Railroads’ War Board in 1917, and reviews 
briefly the events which have occurred since 
the passage of the Transportation Act and 
the restoration of the railroads to private 
control. 

By virtue of his position on the staff of 
the Director General of Railroads, first as 
Manager of the Operating Statistics Section 
and then as Assistant Director of Operation, 
Professor Cunningham had an excellent 
opportunity to observe all phases of the 
experiment of Federal management of the 
railroads. His thorough knowledge of rail¬ 
road transportation, gained in years of 
experience as a railroad official and as a 
student and teacher of railroad economics, 
has enabled him to estimate properly the 
significance of the factors which he has had 
to consider in making a study of his subject, 
and, what is more important, has permitted 
him to approach controversial topics with 
the impartial spirit of the scholar. As 
might be expected, his work is clear, logical 
and well-balanced, and his conclusions are 
sound and trustworthy. 

He gives a careful analysis of the policies 
followed by the Railroad Administration in 
dealing with the many problems with which 
it was confronted. He has much praise for 
the achievements of the Administration, 
especially during the early months of gov¬ 
ernment control, when by the unification of 
physical facilities, the disregard of competi¬ 
tive influences, and the elimination of 
unessential service, it was able to reestab¬ 
lish the railroad service and bring order out 
of the confused situation which the Rail¬ 
roads’ War Board had not found it possible 
to cope with successfully. He justly con¬ 
demns the failure of the Railroad Adminis¬ 
tration to run the railroads as a business 


enterprise and sees no reasonable excuse for 
the refusal to make an increase in rates and 
fares commensurate with the increase in 
the expenses of operation. In his discus¬ 
sion of the labor policies of the Railroad 
Administration he has little fault to find 
with its wage increases as such, but he 
condemns the practice of wage standardiza¬ 
tion, the granting of the “national agree¬ 
ments,” and the establishment of a system 
of settling disputes which impaired the 
morale of the workers. 

While apparently not a believer in gov¬ 
ernment ownership and operation of rail¬ 
roads as a permanent policy. Professor 
Cunningham is of the opinion that the ex¬ 
periment with Federal operation during the 
abnormal conditions of the war period does 
not offer a test upon which to base reason¬ 
able conclusions with respect to the wisdom 
of such a policy. It is interesting to note, 
in view of the frequent accusations that Mr. 
McAdoo used his position as Director 
General to further his political ambitions, 
that Professor Cunningham believes politi¬ 
cal considerations had little or nothing to 
do with the shaping of the program of the 
Railroad Administration. 

One of the most interesting features of 
Professor Cunningham’s book is his dis¬ 
cussion of the failure of college graduates of 
today to seek positions with railroad cor¬ 
porations. While agreeing with the com¬ 
monly expressed view that the stringent 
regulation of railrqads has done much to 
rob railroad managers of opportunities to 
exercise discretion in the direction of their 
business and consequently rendered the 
work of the railroad executive unattractive 
to young men who want positions in which 
there is free play for individual initiative, 
he claims that this is not the only reason 
that railroad employment is distasteful to 
college men, pointing out that the present 
and the past policies of railroad corpora¬ 
tions in the selection and promotion of 
officials have been such as to discourage 
most college men from entering the railroad 
field and to dishearten the few who have 
entered to such a degree that the ambitious 
ones seize the first available opportunity to 
leave. It would be a good thing for all 
railroad directors and railroad presidents to 


Book Department 


323 


read Professor Cunningham’s observations 
on this topic, and to ponder upon them for 
a time. 

In his discussion of the Transportation 
Act the author has committed one error. 
He asserts (pp. 225-26) that if a carrier 
earns in excess of six per cent on its prop¬ 
erty value “during the first two years of 
operation under the Act” one-half of such 
excess is to be recaptured by the Govern¬ 
ment, and implies that the reduction of the 
fair rate of return to five and three-fourths 
per cent made the recapture clause appli¬ 
cable to earnings in excess of the new rate, 
or to earnings in excess of any rate which 
the Commission shall designate as “fair.” 
The recapture clause apparently applies to 
earnings in excess of six per cent, at all 
times,- regardless of the fair rate of return 
established by the Commission. 

T. W. Van Metre. 

Vanderblue, Homer Bews, and Burgess, 

Kenneth Farwell. Railroads^ Rates, 

Service, Management. Pp. 488. New 

York: The Macmillan Company, 1923. 

The authors of this book have performed 
a double service: they have demonstrated 
the erroneous nature of the all too com¬ 
monly expressed view that the college pro¬ 
fessor and the railroad oflScial have little 
or nothing in common, and they have 
MTitten, in a thoroughly satisfactory man¬ 
ner, a highly useful book. The title is 
somewhat deceptive, as the work is not an 
exposition on the rates, service, and man¬ 
agement of railroads, but a careful and 
intensive study of public regulation of those 
aspects of railroad enterprise. With the 
widening scope of regulation, the Interstate 
Commerce Commission and the Federal 
courts have established a substantial body 
of rules and precedents, in which are em¬ 
bodied the policies that now largely deter¬ 
mine the action taken in dealing wdth 
particular sets of circumstances and con¬ 
ditions. This volume gives an analysis of 
those policies, with full reference to all 
pertinent decisions. Industrial traflSc man¬ 
agers and railroad officials should welcome 
such a comprehensive discussion of the 
fundamental precepts of Federal regulation, 
with the clear statements of the rights. 


duties and obligations of shippers and car¬ 
riers. The book will also be of great value 
to teachers of transportation, and it will 
be read with interest by the large number 
of individuals who have little connection 
with the practical problems of railroad 
transportation, but who are concerned with 
the subject of railroad regulation on account 
of its outstanding importance among the 
public questions of today. 

The first part of the volume outlines the 
powers and functions of the Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission, telling how tliis im¬ 
portant tribunal does its work, and showing 
its relation to the Federal judiciary. The 
second part covers the question of rate 
regulation. It describes in detail the au¬ 
thority which the Commission has over 
rates, gives a sound treatment of the 
theoretical aspects of rate making, and 
discusses the many practical considerations 
which have swayed railroad officials and 
regulating authorities in molding the rail¬ 
road rate structure. The third part takes 
up the regulation of the railroad service, 
dealing with the establishment of rules for 
the promotion of safety and health, and 
telling what has been done to give the 
shipping public certain rights and privileges 
with respect to train service, car service, 
and various special services related to the 
movement of freight. The final section on 
management treats of such questions as 
railroad credit and finance, labor policies, 
accounting, and the proposed plan of rail¬ 
road consolidation. Three appendices give 
an outline of the development of railroad 
regulation in the United States, a list of 
suggested readings, and a table of cases 
cited. 

The authors do not often intrude their 
own opinions, contenting themselves with 
statements of facts and obvious conclusions, 
and at times raising interesting questions 
with regard to controversies now impending 
because of the changes wrought by the 
Transportation Act. There are a few 
errors of minor importance. The term, 
“through rate,” is used almost invariably 
as being synonymous with “joint rate.” 
It is not true (p.60) that a greater number of 
rates is published by tariff publishing agents 
than by individual carriers. The discus- 


324 


The Annals of the American Academy 


sion of the law with respect to the right of 
carriers to load and unload carload freight 
is somewhat misleading, the cases referred 
to not supporting all the implications of the 
statements made (p.286). There are a few 
glaring typographical errors, such as 18,- 
900,000 for 18,900,000,000 on page 350, and 
“get” for “go” on page 397. 

What will impress the general reader who 
takes up this work is the amazing extent of 
the regulation to which railroads are now 
subjected. WTiether for good or for ill the 
business of railroad transportation has lost 
nearly every vestige of private business con¬ 
ducted for profit. While there may remain 
in the railroad service many opportunities 
for the display of individual initiative, this 
initiative must be exercised within metes 
and bounds, established, presumably, in 
the interest of the public. It is not sur¬ 
prising that railroad officials complain 
about the present situation, and one may 
well ask whether, in view of the opportuni¬ 
ties offered in other fields of economic en¬ 
terprise, the railroad business will long 
continue to attract men of vision, faith and 
courage. 

Fisher, Arne. The Mathematical Theory 

of Probabilities and' Its Application to 

Frequency Curves and Statistical Methods. 

Pp. xxix, 289. New York: Macmillan, 

1922. 

The book is the second edition of a book 
. originally published in 191G but now greatly 
enlarged. When Mr. Fisher published the 
first edition, dealing with mathematical 
probabilities and their application to homo¬ 
grade statistical scries, he promised a second 
volume on heterograde statistics and the 
theory of curve fitting—a promise the ful¬ 
filment of which many of his readers have 
no doubt been awaiting patiently. In this 
enlarged volume completed, as he states in 
his preface, after many delays owing to the 
war, he has incorporated some of the mate¬ 
rial that was to have been included in the 
second volume and he holds forth still the 
promise of an additional volume. 

The original book made available for the 
first time to many American students of 
statistics, the developments of the theory 
of probabilities by continental writers,—ag 


founded by Bernoulli, Laplace, and Poisson 
and as further developed in particular by 
the Scandinavians, Germans and Russians. 
The present edition further develops the 
application of the theory of probabilities to 
heterograde statistics,—statistics of varia¬ 
bles, as the English barometricians would 
call them,—as the subject has been devel¬ 
oped largely by the Scandinavians, Gram, 
Thiele Westergaard, Charlier and others. 

The book makes rigorous demands upon 
the beginning student, especially he who 
has not been thoroughly grounded in higher 
mathematics, but this is a mark of its ex¬ 
cellence. The subject is not a simple one, 
and the American student is profoundly to 
be congratulated that Mr. Fisher has 
brought within his reach the researches of 
European statisticians and actuaries in this 
fascinating science. 

Fisher, Irving. The Making of Index 

Numbers. A Study of Their Varieties, 

Tests and Reliability. Pp. xxxi, 526. 

Price, $7.50. New York: Houghton, 

Mifflin Co., 1922. 

The writing of this book marks a service 
to the science and the practice of statistics 
that, it may be ventured, will not be dupli¬ 
cated for some time. For Professor Fisher 
has performed the two-fold task of making 
far-reaching contributions to the theory of 
index number making and of presenting his 
results in such form that others than spe¬ 
cialists can understand them. 

In recent years there has been a tremen¬ 
dous expansion in the use of index numbers 
and in the numbers constructed for various 
purposes. Many of those to whom has 
fallen the lot of making these new tools have 
not been specially trained and it was but 
natural that they should follow the prec¬ 
edent of some index number with which 
they were familiar. At the same time there 
has been no little discussion of index num¬ 
ber theory by such men as Edgeworth, 
Flux, Knibbs, Walsh and Professor Fisher 
himself. Professor Fisher’s book has 
achieved a notable success in being written 
to the laymen as well as to the specialist. 
MTiere mathematical development has been 
possible, he has supplied it but has placed 
it in the appendix; the main body of hi? 


Book Department 


325 


argument and his conclusions are presented 
in clear and non-technical language and are 
copiously illustrated by charts and curves. 

The book raises the question, “What is 
the best formula for constructing an index 
number.^” and furnishes an answer through 
the study of 134 different formulae. The 
tests by which final selections are made are 
two, the time reversal and the factor rever¬ 
sal tests. The former has been used by 
previous writers but the latter is new. The 
application of these tests to various formu¬ 
lae brings to light two kinds of bias—(1) 
type bias, inherent in certain forms of aver¬ 
age when used to average ratios, or rela¬ 
tives; and (2) weight bias. The latter, 
again, is Professor Fisher’s contribution, 
though he credits Walsh with having recog¬ 
nized, by implication, the need for different 
weights with different averages. 

He discards, as wrong in theory, the 
circular test, stated many years ago by 
Westergaard and defended most recently 
by Walsh. To one, who to be sure has no 
right to challenge the opinion of Professor 
Fisher in this field, his defense of his posi¬ 
tion on this point seems not entirely con¬ 
vincing; but, as he shows, the divergence of 
his “superlative” formulae from complete 
satisfaction of the circular test is so small as 
to be of no moment in actual practice. 

The one issue that seems to have been 
conclusively settled by the book is one that 
involved a wide difference of opinion be¬ 
tween Professor Fisher and some of his 
American co-workers in the theory of index 
numbers, the issue as to whether the pur¬ 
pose for which an index number is used is 
an important factor in the selection of the 
formula—and it seems to have been settled 
in Professor Fisher’s favor. An index num¬ 
ber which has an inherent bias is not a good 
one for any purpose. 

The practicing statisticians will probably 
find the book a great aid to them in im¬ 
proving the character of the many indexes 
they are being called upon to construct; for 
the academic statisticians, the reviewer can 
testify that the book is a boon—formal in¬ 
struction in index number making will be 
much easier henceforth—and much more 
efficient. 

Bruce D. Mudgett. 


Mitchell, Macauley, King & Knaults. 
Income in the United States, Its'Amount 
and Distribution, 1909-1919, Volume II, 
Detailed Report. Pp. xiv, 440. New 
York: National Bureau of Economic 
Research, 1922. 

This report publishes the detailed meth¬ 
ods by which the estimates of national 
income and its distribution in the United 
States, found ip the earlier summary vol¬ 
ume, were obtained. The personnel of the 
economic staff of the bureau and the disin¬ 
terested and impartial character of its 
activities gives deserved prestige to their 
study of income as the most satisfactory 
that has yet been made. 

It is to be hoped, however, that everyone 
who has occasion to use any figure published 
in Volume I will have Volume II at hand 

t 

and know, before using the figure, the diffi¬ 
culties under which it is determined. In¬ 
discriminate use of estimates of total 
income or total wages in the United States 
may lead to serious error and it behooves 
all who use these figures to do so only with 
full understanding of the limitations which 
are revealed in the second volume of the 
report. 

Worthy as is this effort to measure in¬ 
come in the United States it must be re¬ 
membered that the data are not available 
for a satisfactory performance of this task 
and the volume contains many estimates 
subject to greater or less error. The au¬ 
thors have pointed these out with great care 
and in several instances have given a sub¬ 
jective estimate of the degree of error. 
Their “guess” at this error is probably 
better than any other, because of their 
familiarity with the data, but that does not 
remove the margin of doubt which attaches 
to any subjective estimate. One is re¬ 
minded of a slogan that at one time adorned 
many of the offices of several war boards in 
Washington during the war: “It can’t be 
done, but here it is.” 

The fact that estimates of total income 
of the United States based on the value 
product of the different industries agrees 
fairly closely to estimates based on incomes 
received by individuals justifies a consider¬ 
able degree of confidence in these totals. 
The share of different industries or of dif- 


326 


The Annals of the American Academy 


ferent economic classes in this total income 
should therefore be a fair index of their 
relative purchasi;ng power in different 
years. Bruce D. Mudgett. 

Hill, Charles E., Ph.D., Professor of 
Political Science, George Washington 
University. Leading American Treaties. 
Pp. 399. New York: Macmillan Com¬ 
pany, 1922. 

This excellent commentary on American 
treaties of outstanding importance will be 


invaluable to students of international re¬ 
lations. The great value of the book rests 
in the fact that it indicates the changes 
through which the treaties passed in the 
course of their negotiation, and thus enables 
the student to follow step by step their 
different stages. 

Dr. Hill has done an important serv¬ 
ice to American students of inter¬ 
national affairs in making this valuable 
material available in such clear and con¬ 
cise form. 


Index 


Aboriginal Races, The. Duncan C. Scott, 
63-6. 

Abuses, in marketing grain, 249. 

Acadians: change of allegiance forced on, 20; 
characteristics of, 20; deportation of, 8; dykes 
built by, 68. 

Act: Agricultural Cooperative Associations, 242; 
Finance Act of 1914, 147 and 148; Divorce and 
Matrimonial Causes, 276; Employment Offi¬ 
cer’s Coordination, 292; Factory, 254; Factory 
and Mining, 261; Finance, 209; Industrial 
Disputes Investigation, 294-7; Maternity Pro¬ 
tection, 259; Minimum Wage, 257; Mining, 
255; Mothers’ Allowance, 258; Provincial 
School Attendance, 259; Returned Soldiers’ 
Insurance, 271; Soldier Settlement, 271; Tech¬ 
nical Education, 260; Workmen’s Compensa¬ 
tion, 256. 

“Acute fuet zone,” 110. 

Adams, Frank D. Industrial Research in Can¬ 
ada, 115-9. 

Agrarian Movement, The. M. H. Staples, 
248-53. 

Agricultural Cooperation in the Canadian 
West. C. R. Fay, 238-47. 

Agricultural; colleges; establishment of, 70; re¬ 
search, 83; agricultural economics and farm 
surveys, studies in, 231; experimental station, 
first, 83; possibilities, extent of, 74; societies, 
formation of, 70. 

Agricultural Research in Canada. Its 
Origin and Development. E. S. Hopkins, 
82-7. 

Agriculture in Eastern Canada. W. C. 
Hopper, 67-73. 

Agriculture, of French Canadians, 11; future of 
in Eastern Canada, 73; in college curriculum, 
124; slow advancement of, 68, 69. 

Allied armies, 267. 

American Revolution, 36. 

America, Spanish discovery of, 36. 

Anglican Church, attitude toward divorce of, 
277. 

Anglo-Saxon, qualities of, 49. 

Antitoxins, 82. 

Arbitration and Conciliation in Canada. 
R. M. Maciver, 294-8. 

Areas: crop, 78; forest, 94; fresh water, 110; land, 
95. 

Artificial reforestation, 101. 

Askwith, Sir George, 297. 

Bank Act, First, 137; defects in and new features 
of, 142; bank failures, 146; notes, use of, 179; 
banks, American, 179. 


Banking: branch system of, 146; borrower, 179; 
capital, seasonal flow of, 182; depositor, 144; 
“double liability,” 138; early days of, 136; 
facilities for loans in, 145; flexibility of, 210; 
rural, 236; redemption of notes, 141; system of, 
178. 

Beef Rings, 238. 

Beland, Hon. H. S. Returned Soldier, The, 
267-74. 

Belcourt, Hon. Senator N. A. French Ca¬ 
nadians Outside of Quebec, The, 13-24. 

Boggs, T. H. Oriental Immigration, 50-5. 

Boom days, 74. 

Brett, G. S. Higher Education, 126-30. 

British Preference, The. John Lewis, 198- 
203. 

Brittain, Horace L. Municipal Taxation in 
Canada, 221-6. 

Bryce, P. H. Immigrant Settler, The, 35-44. 

Budget, difference between United States and 
Canadian systems, 208; speech, 200; impor¬ 
tance of, 205. 

Cartier, Sir George, 280. 

Canada’s Budgetary System. B. J. Roberts, 
204-8. 

Canada’s Immigration Policy. Robert J. C. 
Stead, 56-62. 

Canada’s Outstanding Imports. S. H. Logan, 
183-6. 

Canada’s Rural Problem. W. C. Good, 227- 
37. 

Canadian Banking. Sir Edmund Walker, 136- 
48. 

Canadian: Artie Expedition, 92; Bankers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, 146; Expeditionary Force, 92; isolation 
of, 299; National Railways: features of, 131; 
results obtained by, 133; obstacles, 134, 135; 
migratory habit of, 25; Pacific Railway, 38; 
restlessness of, 33. 

Canadian National Railways, The. D. A. 
MacGibbon, 131-5. 

Canadian Tariff, The. J. A. Stevenson, 193-7. 

Canadianization of the Immigrant Settler, 
The. j. H. Haslem, 45-9. 

Canoes, number of licensed, 21. 

Cash reserves, 139. 

Catherine the Great, 46. 

Census: before war, 267; establishment of regu¬ 
lar, 2; first, 1. 

Centennial Exposition, 79. 

Chamberlain Campaign, 201. 

Champlain, Samuel de, 67. 

Charter: banking, 136; municipal, 221. 

Chicago World’s Fair, 79. 


327 




328 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Children: aid given, 258; attendance at school of, 
260; control over occupations, 259; protection 
of, 255. 

Chinese, 52. 

Church, position of in divorce cases, 280. 

Coal: annual consumption, 184; reserves, 104. 

Coats, R. H. * Growth of Population in Canada, 
The, 1-6; Labour Movement in Canada, The, 
282-5. 

Crimean War, 70. 

Colleges, 129; introduction of commercial courses 
in, 123, 124. 

Commercial timber, 95. 

Commodity marketing, 246. 

Common Law of England (divorce law'), 275. 

Community activities, aids to and value of, 235. 

Comparative Prices in Canada and the 
United States. H. Michell, 149-54. 

Compulsion: with regard to strikes, 297; failure 
of, 299. 

Cooperative movement: distinctive features of, 
242-4; of farmers, 238; cattle marketing in, 
240; societies, influence of Catholic Church on, 
45. 

Copper, 105. 

Corless, Dr. C. V., 101. 

Corn Laws, abolition of, 198. 

CuDMORE, S. A. Primary and Secondary Edu¬ 
cation in Canada, 120-5. 

Debate, Davies Amendment v. McNeill Resolu¬ 
tion, 199. 

Debts, increase of, 173. 

Deflation, period of, 164. 

Depression, after expansion, 38; trade cycle, 34. 

Disease, inroads of, 63. 

Divorce in Canada. lion. Mr. Justice A. 
Rives Hall, 275-81. 

Divorce: jurisdiction of provinces in, 277-9; 
laxity of American laws, 282; need of federal 
law, 280. 

Dominion Grange, formation and origin, 248. 

Dominion and Provincial Taxation in Can¬ 
ada. H. R. Kemp, 216-20. 

Dominion Water Power Branch Depart¬ 
ment, Staff of. Water Powders of Canada, 
110-4; Drouth, 77. 

Early colonies (Province of Quebec), character¬ 
istics and high birth rate of, 9. 

East Indian, increase and check of, 53. 

Ecclesiastical Court, divorce obtained from, 275. 

Economic Conference, calling of in Great Brit¬ 
ain, 197. 

Education: classic emphasis on, 126; demand for 
professional and aflBliated college work, 129; 
desire for, 37, 125; government aid for, 124; as 
immigration inducement, 60; in Quebec, 11; 
post-graduate wwk, 130; rural, 234; Scottish 
influence on, 120; technical, 260. 


Eight-hour day, 260. 

Electricity, first transmission of, 110. 

Employment: abolishment of private oflSces, 291; 
restriction of women and children in mines, 
255; statistics, value of, 288; service, 287, 292, 
293. 

Emigration of Canadians to the United 
States. G. E. Jackson, 25-34. 

Emigration: change in type of, 30; geographical 
influence on, 31; political aspect of, 28. 

English period, 8. 

Eskimo, 64, 65. 

Evils, political and social, 37. 

Expansion, 38. 

Expenditures, 204, 205; increase in, 216. 

Exporting: extent of, 183; of wheat, 190; to 
Great Britain, 157. 

Exploits, of French, 13. 

Fairs, 70, 290, 248; agricultural, 86. 

Farmers: associations, 248; cancellation of army 
exemption of, 251; cooperative ownership of, 
233; hardships of as producers, 150; health of, 
233; importance of, 231; entrance into politics 
of, 232, 238, 250, 253; meeting in London of, 
248; town advantages denied to, 235. 

Farming, early, 67, 68, 107. 

Farm: home conditions on, 233; industrial 
changes on, 236; products, 72; rehabilitation of 
by returned soldiers, 271. 

Fay, C. R. Agricultural Cooperation in the 
Canadian West, 238-49. 

Federation, in schools and colleges, 128. 

Fielding, Hon. W. S., 200. 

Findlay, Marion. Protection of Workers in 
Industry, 254-66. 

Fisheries of Canada, The. Edw ard E. Prince, 
88-94. 

Fisk, Harvey E. Flow of Capital—Canada, 
The, 170-82. 

Flow of Capital—Canada, The. Harvey E. 
Fisk, 170-82. 

Foreign Trade of Canada, The. Victor Ross, 
155-69. 

Forests and Forest Industries of Canada, 
The. C. D. How^e, 95-101. 

Forest fires, 95, 

Free, homesteads, 74; land, 56; trade, impossi¬ 
bility of, 197, 203. 

Freedom, 36. 

French Canadians in the Province of Que¬ 
bec, The. G. E. Marquis, 7-12. 

French Canadians: ancestors of, 7; characteris¬ 
tics of, 10, 28; extent of settlements of, 14, 16 
(outside of Quebec); high standing of, 18. 

French Canadians Outside of Quebec, The. 
Hon. Senator N. A. Belcourt, 13-24. 

French: ascendency of, 45; period, 7, 8; Revolu¬ 
tion, 36. 


Index 


329 


Frost, 77. 

Fruit unions, 245. 

Galt, Sir Alexander, 193. 

Geologists, work of, 101. 

George, Mr. Lloyd, 211. 

Germany, students of, 129. 

Gold, 211,143; basis, 149; discovery of Porcupine 
area, 103, 105; Klondike, 104. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 69. 

Good, W. C. Canada’s Rural Problem, 227- 
37. 

Grain Growers’ Grain Company, formation and 
work of, 238. 

Growth of Population in Canada, The. 
R. H. Coats, 1-6. 

Hall, Hon. Mr. Justice A. Rives. Divorce in 
Canada, 275-81. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 136. 

Handicrafts, in school curriculum, 124. 

Haslem, J. H. Canadianization of the Immi¬ 
grant Settler, The, 45-9. 

Hebert, Louis, 66. 

Hemon, Louis, 33. 

Higher Education. G. S. Brett, 126-30. 

Hopkins, E. S. Agricultural Research in Can¬ 
ada. Its Origin and Development, 82-7. 

Hopper, W. C. Agriculture in Eastern Canada, 
67-73. 

Howe, C. D. Forests and Forest Industries in 
Canada, 95-101. 

Industrial survey, for returned soldiers, 270. 

Icelanders, arrival of, 47. 

Immigration: government action taken for farm 
labour, 290; movement, 2; new policy of, 39; 
oriental, 50-3; periods, 36; restrictions, 53; 
serious effect of, 41; Women’s Branch, De¬ 
partment of, 290. 

Immigrant: American and continental, 42; effect 
of rapid development on, 37; political aspect 
of, 28, 39. 

Immigrant Settler, The. P. H. Bryce, 35-44. 

Imports, 183-6. 

Indians, 22; competition difficulties of, 65; en¬ 
franchisement of, 63; intermarriage, 22, 63; 
Reserve System, 63, 64. 

Industrial Research in Canada. Frank D. 
Adams, 115-9. 

Industry: withdrawal from by soldiers, 267; part 
played in education by, 127. 

Insurance, group, 263-6. 

Iron, 103, 106, 107. 

Investments, 170; of United States and United 
Kingdom in Canada, 175. 

Jackson, G. E. Emigration of Canadians to the 
United States, 25-34, 

Japanese, 52, 53. 


Kemp, H. R. Dominion and Provincial Taxa¬ 
tion in Canada, 216-20. 

Kennedy, W. P. M. Select Bibliography of 
Social and Economic Conditions in Canada, 
303, 307. 

Labour, American Federation of, 300, 301; dis¬ 
appearance of local market, 290; importance 
of, 254; overseas representatives, 290; present 
attitude of, 290; restriction of wages and, 260. 

Labour Movement in Canada, The. R. H. 
Coats, 282-5. 

Labour movement, political influence on, 299- 
301. 

Lambert, Norman P. Western Agricultural 
Resources, 74-81. 

Land: cultivation, 78-80; policy, 39; selling, 58; 
speculation, 38, 40, 41. 

Language, French Canadian, 12. 

Law, Mr. Bona, 211. 

Lewis, John. British Preference, The, 198-203. 

Live stock: contribution of agricultural research 
to, 85; early importance of, 69; future, 79. 

Living, cost of, 152. 

Loans: pre-war, during, after, 171; system of, 
212; United States, 213; Victory, 213, 214. 

Logan, S. H. Canada’s Outstanding Imports, 
183-6. 

Loyalist movement, 1. 

Lumber, value of, 97. 

Macdonald, Sir John, 193. 

MacGibbon, D. a. Canadian National Rail¬ 
ways, The, 131-5. 

MacIver, R. M. Arbitration and Conciliation 
in Canada, 294-8. 

Manitoba Grain Act, passing of, 249. 

Marketing Wheat. James Stewart, 187-92. 

Marquis, G. E. French Canadians in the Prov¬ 
ince of Quebec, 7-12. 

Mayflower, The, 30. 

McCarthy, Dalton, Tariff reform, 199. 

McNeill’s Resolution, 199. 

Mennonites, settlement in and exodus from 
Canada, 46, 47. 

Mexico, discovery of metals in, 104. 

Michigan copper mines, 103; pineries of, 96. 

Michell, H. Comparative Prices in Canada 
and the United States, 149-54. 

Military service, exemption of Mennonites from, 
46. 

Milk, Fraser Valley Association, success of, 244. 

Mineral Resources of Canada, The. Balmer 
Neilly, 102-9. 

Mining, importance of, 108. 

Minimum wage regulations, 261. 

Mineral possibilities, 102. 

Minister of Finance, conferences with, 214; sub¬ 
mission of yearly estimates to, 204. 

Missionaries, discoveries and work of, 21, 22. 


330 


The Annals of the American Academy 


Money crises, 209. 

Monopoly, Canadian banking not a, 137. 

Municipal Taxation in Canada. Horace L. 
Brittain, 221-6. 

National neighbors: contact with, 56; increase in 
wealth, 182. 

Naturalization of Orientals, 54. 

Neilly Balmer. Mineral Resources of Canada, 
The, 102-9. 

New markets, 160. . 

Notes, Dominion, 210; issues of, 140, 141, 211. 

Old World customs, 290. 

Oriental Lmmigration. T. H. Boggs, 50-5. 

Paper money, restriction of, 141. 

Parliament, duties of, 204; specific grant of, 
207. 

Patrons of Industry, formation, 248. 

Patten, Simon N., Memorial Addresses on 
THE Life and Services of, 333. 

Pensions, for returned soldiers, 270. 

Penal Provisions, failure to enforce, 297. 

Pioneers, early, 13. 

Plains of Abraham, Battle of, 68. 

Plan for State Labour Statistics. A. Leo 
Wolman, 308-19. 

Labour Statistics: dependence of public admin¬ 
istration on, 309; duplication of, 309; reor¬ 
ganization of Canadian Dominion statistics, 
314; settlement of disputes by means of, 310- 
2; statistician, duties and need of, 314, 315; 
statistical tables, 313; state investigations, 312; 
United States Bureau of Labor, 311; Pennsyl¬ 
vania Department of Labor and Industry, 
data of, 311-3; publications, kinds and general 
rules of, 316-9. 

Platinum, diseovery of, 104. 

Political Development within the Labour 
Movement in Canada. J. S. Woodsworth, 
299-302. 

Population: Eastern Canada, 71; expansion, 2; 
increases through immigration, 56, 68; mix¬ 
ture of, 299; native, 63; urban, 41. 

Port Royal, first settlement at, 19; first wheat 
grown, 67. 

Pre-Cambrian Laurentian Shield, development 
of, 101. 

Precipitation, 71. 

Preference, British, 194-200; Canadian, 201; 
effect on British trade of, 201; reciprocal, 198, 
199; tariff, 202. 

Prices: dissimilarity (Canada and United States); 
similarity (Canada and England), 149; fuel and 
light, rise, decline, 151; foodstuffs, 151. 

Primary and Secondary Education in Can¬ 
ada. S. A. Cudmore, 120-5. 

Prince, Edward E. Fisheries of Canada, The, 
88-94. 


Production, increase in and future possibilities, 
78, 79. 

Prosperity: artificial, 41; evidences of, 72. 

Protection of Workers in Industry. Marion 
Findlay, 254-66. 

Protestant schools, work of, 122. 

Public Accounts Committee, functions of, 207. 

Publicity, immigration inducement, 59. 

Pulpwood, increase in, 99. 

Quebec, fall of, 14; French in, 45. 

Railways: completion of, 299; duplication of, 133; 
government ownership of, 131-4; expansion of, 
40; part played in development of country by, 
37; present problem, 131. 

Race prejudice, 54. 

Ranches, 79. 

Rent, 151. 

Report of Survey Board for Southern Alberta, 81. 

Research: achievements of, 84-6; Council: work 
of, 116; discoveries in, 82; industrial, 115-9; 
publications in agricultural, 86. 

Repeal of Combination Laws (England), 282. 

Revenue, necessity for, 216; sources of, 221-6; 
water power as, 113. 

Returned Soldier, The. Hon. H. S. Beland, 
267-74. 

Rogue, Sieur de la, 21. 

Roman Catholic schools, 123, 124. 

Ross, Victor. Foreign Trade of Canada, The, 
155-69. 

Rural church, federation, 235; decline, 5; in¬ 
crease, 6; problem, 230, 231. 

Russian Revolution, influence on labour move¬ 
ment of, 300. 

Russia, emigration of Mennonites from Canada 
to, 46; of Ruthenians from, 48. 

Ruthenian, most important foreign element, 48. 

Roberts, B. J. Canada’s Budgetary System, 
204-8. 

Safety, of industrial workers, 261, 262. 

Science, important discoveries in, 82; scientific 
survey, 75. 

Saskatchewan Land Company, 40. 

Sastri, Hon. Mr., 55. 

Scott, Duncan C. Aboriginal Races, The, 63- 

6 . 

Select Bibliography of Social and Economic 
Conditions in Canada. W. P. M. Kennedy, 
303-7. 

Senate, r6le of in divorce proceedings, 277, 299; 
rdle of in money matters, 206. 

Settler, early, 69. 

Settlements, 17, 20, 22, 23; of French, 36. 

Sexes, equality of for divorce grounds, 276. 

Silver, 103, 105. 

Simpson, Sir George, 74. 

Smith percentage law, 226. 


Index 


331 


Socialist movement, 285, 300, 

Soil, kinds, etc., 74-9. 

Staples, M. H. Agrarian Movement, The, 
248-53. 

Stead, Robert J. C. Canada’s Immigration 
Policy, 56-62. 

Stewart, Bryce M. Unemployment and Or¬ 
ganization of the Labour Market, 286-93. 

Strikes, coal, 294. 

Soldiers: government aid to, 288; employment 
oflSces for, 268; Civil Reestablishment, De¬ 
partment of, 268. 

South African War, 200. 

Standard of living, Asiatic, 51. 

“State Rights” re United States fisheries, 93. 

Stewart, James. Marketing Wheat, 187-92. 

Stevenson, J. A. Canadian Tariff, The, 193- 
7. 

Supply Bill, 206. 

Tariff, 193-6; farmer’s viewpoint on, 250. 

Taxation: changes in, 206; of land values, 232; 
legislative limitations on, 226; real estate 
amendments and improvements, 221, 222. 

Taxes, 216-8; Dominion v. provincial, 220. 

Trade: drop in due to cessation of war, 156; ex¬ 
ternal, 155; foreign, 155-7, 176. 

Thornton, Sir Henry, 132. 

Trade Unionism: history of, 282-4; extreme 
development of among urban immigrants, 
42. 

Treaty of Paris, 13. 

Treaty of Utrecht, 8. 

Tuberculosis, 63. 

Unemployment and Organization of the 
Labour Market. Bryce M. Stewart, 286-93. 

Unemployment, government aid for, 288, 290; 
relief for returned soldiers, 271. 

United States: census, 26; education in, 121; 
exodus of French Canadians to, 16; mines, 102, 
103; migration to from Canada, 25, 47; prox¬ 


imity to encouragement for divorce, 280; uni¬ 
versities of, 129. 

Urban, increase, 6. 

Vocational training, for returned soldiers, 269. 

“Vote on account,” 206. 

Volume of currency, difference in and flexibility 
of, 142. 

Walker, Sir FiDMUND. Canadian Banking, 
136-48. 

War Finance of Canada, The. Right Hon. 
Sir Thomas White, 209-15. 

War, 74; banking after, 214; cause of unemploy¬ 
ment, 286; cost of, 182; effect on emigration, 
34; fishing, increase in caused by, 88; house 
shortage, 151; immigration, decrease in, 58; 
investments, increase in caused by, 170; in¬ 
fluence on price movement, 149; loss from, 4; 
of 1812, 37; service gratuity, 268; research 
work stimulated by, 115. 

Women’s Institutes, work of, 234. 

Water Powers of Canada, Dominion Water 
Power Branch Department, Staff of, 110-4. 

Western Agricultural Resources. Norman 
P. Lambert, 74-81. 

Wheat: elevator accommodations, 187, 188; 
handling of by Grain Growers Company, 239; 
transportation of, 191;. world’s harvest, 192. 

White, Right Hon. Sir Thomas. War Fi¬ 
nance of Canada, The, 209-15. 

White pine, value of, 96. 

Wickett, Dr. Morley, 27. 

W’oLMAN, Leo. Plan for State Labor Statistics, 
308-19. 

WooDswoRTH, J. S. Political Development 
within the Labour Movement in Canada, 299- 
302. 

Young French women, refuted old stories con¬ 
cerning, 7. 

Zinc, 106. 







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Memorial Addresses on the Life and 
Services of Simon N. Patten 


Being the supplement to the 

May, 1923, number of The Annals, No. 196 
on Social and Economic Conditions in 
the Dominion of Canada 





Tribute of the American Academy of Political and 
Social Science to the Memory of 
Dr. Simon N. Patten 


Address of Dr. L. S. Rowe 
President of the Academy 

by his students: Dr. Samuel McCune 


W E are assembled to bring our 
measure of tribute to a great 
teacher, philosopher and friend. Fu¬ 
ture generations will measure far more 
accurately than we the full scope and 
the ultimate reaches of his influence. 
Of the present generation, those of 
us who had the privilege of being 
his students are fully aware of the 
profound influence of his teaching 
on our thought and attitude toward 
life. 

There are three outstanding qualities 
of his mind, all of which contributed 
toward making him a great teacher. 
The flrst was his openness of mind to 
every point of view, combined with 
a willingness to give careful and serious 
consideration to every opinion no 
matter how widely divergent from 
his own. To every question to which 
he addressed himself, no matter how far 
removed from his special fleld of re¬ 
search, he brought an originality of 
viewpoint which illumined with new 
light and opened the door to new and 
unexpected solutions. At all times 
he showed an unwillingness to accept 
traditional opinion, unless tested by 
independent, searching analysis. 

It was these three qualities that 
enabled him to develop in his students, 
not only profound intellectual curi¬ 
osity, but also the determination to 
subject traditional viewpoints to inde¬ 
pendent tests. 

It is no mere coincidence that three 
of the great scientific organizations 
of the country are today presided over 


Lindsay, President of the Academy 
of Political Science in the City of 
New York; Dr. Henry R. Seager, 
President of the American Economic 
Association, and Dr. James P. Lichten- 
berger. President of the American 
Sociological Society. 

The educational history of this 
country offers but few instances of a 
teacher so deeply interested in the 
progress and welfare of his students. 
No sacrifice was too great for him when 
the advancement of one of his students 
was in question. He was prepared at 
all times to subordinate his personal 
affairs and convenience to the welfare 
of his students. 

The members of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science 
owe him a special debt of gratitude. 
During the early years of the Acade¬ 
my’s history, when its founders were 
struggling to develop for this organiza¬ 
tion a place in the national life of the 
country. Dr. Patten’s faith in the fu¬ 
ture of the work never failed. It was 
this faith and constant encouragement 
that carried the ofl&cers of the Acad¬ 
emy through periods of depression 
and discouragement when the future 
seemed in doubt. Throughout the 
development of the Academy’s work 
he constantly stood for the highest 
standards of intellectual integrity 
and freedom of opinion. In fact, 
nothing aroused him as much as any 
attempt to curb the expression of 
opinion, It was Dr. Patten’s high 


336 


The Annals of the American Academy 


concept of the purpose and mission 
of the Academy that served as a 
constant stimulus and guide to those 
entrusted with the direction of its activi¬ 
ties. He saw from the beginning that 
the Academy should be made to serve 
as a great national forum for the freest 
expression of opinion. 

To his open mind every opinion 
was entitled to consideration. In¬ 
tolerance was a thing utterly foreign 
to his thought. It was this trait as 
much as any other that made him a 
great teacher and, at the same time, 
a supporter of the truest democratic 
development. Year in and year out 


he preached to us who were actively 
engaged in directing the Academy’s 
activities to keep the organization free 
from entangling alliances and to allow 
no special influence of any kind to 
influence its work. 

The Academy owes him a debt 
which it can never hope to repay. 
As an expression of appreciation for the 
services of one of its greatest founders 
the Board of Directors has decided 
to establish a special research fellow¬ 
ship to be known as the Simon N. 
Patten Fellowship for* Research, to 
be awarded under such conditions as 
the Board may determine. 


Address of Dr. Henry R. Seager 

President, The American Economic Association 


Like others of his generation. Dr. 
Patten gained his first knowledge 
of political economy from the pages of 
John Stuart Mill. His virile mind was 
attracted by Mill’s lucid reasoning, 
but even as an undergraduate at 
Northwestern he was impressed by 
the inapplicability of Mill’s conclusions 
to economic conditions in rural Illinois, 
where he was reared. His conviction 
that Mill’s economic system rested 
upon too narrow premises was strength¬ 
ened by his two years’ study in Ger¬ 
many in the late seventies. 

It would probably be diflSicult to 
exaggerate the effect of these German 
student years on Patten’s later thought 
and work. It was the contrast be¬ 
tween the consuming habits of the 
middle-class Germans that he met, 
and of the Illinois farmers he had 
lived among, that first directed his 
attention to that neglected depart¬ 
ment of economics, consumption, in 
which some of his best later work was 
done. In the German literature of 
the period he found support for his 
view that while free trade might be 


best for England, protection was 
needed to foster the industrial de¬ 
velopment of countries like the United 
States and Germany. Finally he was 
greatly impressed by the way in which 
the Germans increased their enjoy¬ 
ments through social and community 
activities. There were the numerous 
public parks and playgrounds, the 
municipal theaters and concert halls, 
and the endless social clubs and Kajfee- 
klatsche meeting at inexpensive restau¬ 
rants. Also there was the government 
administration of the street and steam 
railroads, which brought short trips 
to the country and the mountains 
within the reach even of German 
wage-earners. He saw that while the 
Illinois farmer was richer, the middle- 
class German was in many ways better 
off. The important truth which then 
impressed him, that social welfare 
depends quite as much on the way 
in which wealth is used as on its 
amount, colored all his later economic 
thinking. 

Returning to the United States, 
Patten spent the ne^i ten years mostly 


337 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


in that clarifying if exhausting occu¬ 
pation, teaching or acting as principal 
of secondary schools. It was in this 
period that he prepared and with a 
good deal of difficulty found a publisher 
for his 'first book, the Premises of 
Political Economy (1885). This was 
an attempt to recast the economics 
of Mill so that it would apply to 
American conditions. It was a chal¬ 
lenge to’ the assumption of the English 
laissez-faire school that individuals 
know what is best for themselves and if 
left alone will secure it, and an argu¬ 
ment for government interference with 
the free play of economic forces through 
protection and other measures for the 
promotion of the general welfare. 

It was this book and the courage and 
insight of his friend of Illinois and 
German student days, Edmund J. 
James, Dean of the recently organized 
Wharton School, which caused him 
to be called as Professor of Political 
Economy to the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania in 1888. The opportunity 
for concentration on his special subject 
and the more stimulating associations 
of a great university, which this ap¬ 
pointment offered to him, made possi¬ 
ble the tremendous literary output 
which followed almost to the close of 
his life. In addition to the mono¬ 
graphs and books which appeared at 
regular intervals—some twenty in all— 
including the Consumption (1889), the 
Economic Basis of Protection (1890), 
the Theory of Dynamic Economics 
(1892), the Theory of Social Forces 
(1896), the Development of English 
Thought (1899), the Theory of Pros¬ 
perity (1902), Heredity and Social 
Progress (1903), and the New Basis of 
Civilization (1907), Patten contributed 
one hundred and thirty-two articles 
to periodicals during the years from 
1889 to 1920, whose titles have already 
been listed by my colleague at Colum¬ 
bia, Professor Tugwell, and probably 


many more, no record of which has 
been preserved. 

This is hardly the place to attempt 
a detailed appraisal of Dr. Patten’s 
contribution to economics. The strik¬ 
ing aspects of his thinking are origi¬ 
nality and the attempt to find the 
theoretical justification for conclusions 
applicable to acutely and vividly 
apprehended concrete situations. In¬ 
trospection caused him to trace the 
origin of his own theories as unfolded 
in his Premises y his Consumptiony 
his Protection and his Dynamic Eco¬ 
nomics to the special conditions of the 
still new and expanding industrial 
civilization about him. From this 
the attempt to interpret the economic 
and social systems of other thinkers in 
terms of the economic conditions with 
which they were in contact followed 
quite spontaneously and we have his 
acute Interpretation of Ricardo and 
classical Development of English Thought 
as a result. 

Just as his earlier contributions grew 
out of his realization that the premises 
of Mill were untrue or only half true 
of conditions in the United States, 
so his later contributions grew out of 
his realization that the separation of 
our economic from the rest of our social 
life is artificial and arbitrary. Be¬ 
ginning with his Theory of Social 
Forces (1896), Patten passed from the 
field of economics in the narrow sense 
to the broader field of sociology and 
history, but with an abiding conviction 
of the predominant influence of eco¬ 
nomic factors, which makes him, 
whatever problem he attacks, always 
and everywhere a Simon-pure econo¬ 
mist. This appears quite clearly in 
his last important books, the Social 
(he might have said. Economic) Basis 
of Religion (1911) and Reconstruction 
of Economic Theory (1912). 

Others will speak of these broader 
aspects of his work. I should feel 


23 


338 


The Annals of the American Academy 


derelict if I did not use the few minutes 
I have left to pay my tribute of grati¬ 
tude to Professor Patten, the inspiring 
teacher and loyal friend. 

My own first acquaintance with Dr. 
Patten was through his earlier writings 
and his devoted pupils, Dr. Lindsay 
and Dr. Rowe, whom I met in the early 
nineties as fellow students in Germany. 
The interest these aroused led me to de¬ 
cide, almost over night, to come to the 
University of Pennsylvania for my last 
year of graduate study. 

Wdien I first met Patten I recall 
a distinct disappointment. In spite 
of his five years of life in this cultured 
city, he had put on few of the social 
graces on which first impressions so 
largely depend. This disappointment 
was entirely dispelled by my first 
contact with Patten in the class room. 
His method of instruction was simple 
and direct to a degree, but before the 
hour was over he impressed on his 
hearers, as he had impressed on his 
own mind, the points he had jotted 
down in pencil on the rough sheet of 
paper before him. As weeks passed, 
the conventional and only partly 
grasped theories of economics, which 
I had picked up during my three years 
of special study, began to seem less and 
less consistent and less and less ade¬ 
quate to a satisfactory explanation 
of economic facts, and to afford but 
a shaky support for any program of 
economic reform. Before the first 
term was over the searching analysis 
of accepted premises through which 
Dr. Patten led his advanced students, 
convinced me how far from finality 
was any part of the subject, and freed 
me, at least for the time being, from 
reliance on authority that was not 
supported by my own thinking and 
experience. More than any teacher 
I had ever met, Patten had the faculty 
of compelling his students to visualize 
the problems he discussed and think 


their way through to their own con¬ 
clusions. The more formal exercises 
of the class room were supplemented 
by unlimited opportunities for private 
discussion. For Dr. Patten at that 
period had literally no other important 
interest than his teaching and writing 
about economics. The stimulus and 
interest of that student year was 
continued during the eight .years I 
remained at Pennsylvania as one of 
Patten’s humble colleagues. It was 
through his encouragement that I 
undertook to write a textbook on 
economics that should try to combine 
and harmonize the new with the old. 
While most of that book was written 
after I left Pennsylvania, any value 
that the newer portions of it, like the 
chapter on Consumptioriy may have, 
was largely the result of Patten’s 
influence. I mention these personal 
details because I know that my experi¬ 
ence and indebtedness were paralleled 
by those of scores of other students. 
To all of us he w^as the prince of teachers 
and an ever-inspiring and helpful 
friend in connection with our own 
teaching and writing difficulties. His 
active and original mind was ever busy 
with some problem of economic or 
social causation. With little natural 
facility either for lecturing or writing, 
his penetrating insight and vivid 
imagination helped him to become a 
stimulating lecturer and an incisive 
writer. Opinions will necessarily dif¬ 
fer as to the permanent value of his 
constructive contributions, but there 
can be but one judgment as to the 
inestimable aid he rendered American 
economic thinking in its task of freeing 
itself from the trammels* of imported 
tradition and of opening up its new 
and rich native fields for analysis and 
research. Simon Patten, was, in my 
opinion, the most original and sug¬ 
gestive economist America has yet 
produced, All honor to his memory! 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simok N. Patten 


339 


Address of Dr. J. P. Lichtenberger 
President, The American Sociological Society 


It is with a sense of deep appreciation 
that I am permitted on this occasion 
to speak in behalf of my colleagues in 
the field of Sociology. Many of us 
feel a degree of indebtedness to Pro¬ 
fessor Patten hardly secondary to the 
pioneers in our own subject. I pre¬ 
sume there is nothing in the entire 
sphere of natural science which is 
comparable to the interdependence 
which is found in the social sciences. 
Each of us studies the pluralistic 
behavior of men which we call society 
merely from the point of view of his 
own peculiar interest, but we study 
the same group. There are no bounda¬ 
ries which set off our subjects as dis¬ 
tinct and separate. The economist, 
the political scientist and the sociolo¬ 
gist views the same life process merely 
from different angles. Each con¬ 
tributes to the others the results of 
his investigations and it is in the re¬ 
sulting synthetic view that a more 
adequate description of social phenom¬ 
ena is obtained. 

Thus there exists a bond of sym¬ 
pathy, understanding and friendship 
among these associated groups and 
among their constituent members which 
transcends that of mere coordinated 
effort. It becomes exceedingly in¬ 
timate in its character. Such was 
Professor Patten’s relationship to us. 
His interest was personal as well as 
scientific and we thought of him not 
merely as co-worker but as friend. He 
always insisted that the separate 
designations among workers in the 
field of social science were artificial 
and of little consequence. The im¬ 
portant thing to him was the impulse 
which lead men to social investigation, 
and through it to social service in 
any division of the field. With all 
such he felt a spiritual kinship and 


for all such he held the highest regard. 

It was, therefore, more in jest than 
in earnest, I think, that he repudiated 
the name sociologist, so frequently 
applied to him, for he had no hesitancy 
whatever in contributing to the science 
either in its theoretical or its practical 
aspects. No one whom I have known 
has ever taken keener delight nor de¬ 
rived greater . satisfaction from the 
knowledge that he had contributed to 
clearer thinking or to saner views in 
any field. He was totally devoid of 
professional jealousy. 

Not only in regard to his scientific 
interest but in respect to the character 
of his mind. Professor Patten was al¬ 
ways difficult to classify. The vigor 
and originality of his thinking always 
challenged attention. He was a men¬ 
tal tonic. Whether one agreed with 
his conclusions or not, to hear him 
speak or to read his articles or books 
was always a stimulus which set one’s 
mental machinery going at an ac¬ 
celerated rate. He was always thought- 
provoking and though sometimes un¬ 
systematic and often illogical himself, 
he nevertheless compelled systematic 
and logical thinking in others. What 
appeared to some to be “a strain after 
the novel” which seemed to character¬ 
ize much of his teachings and writings, 
was in reality nothing but the uncon¬ 
ventionality of his thinking. He saw 
things differently and he described 
them uniquely. Such minds are al¬ 
ways intensely suggestive if they are 
not always convincing. For this rea¬ 
son his admirers greatly outnumbered 
his followers. In fact, to follow him 
required an agility in changing one’s 
mind, in grasping new concepts and 
in formulating new views possessed 
by but few. That men should change 
their views with the discovery of new 


340 


The Annals of the American Academy 


truth he held to be a criterion of 
intelligence and of mental growth. 

It would be impossible here, even 
if it were desirable, to mention even 
by subjects Dr. Patten’s many con¬ 
tributions to the social thought of the 
time. Many of his views put forth 
in his earlier writings he modified or 
corrected in his later work as a result 
of the unfolding of his own thought 
processes. He was fond of saying 
that books were of little value be¬ 
cause by the time they were published 
the author himself had outgrown them 
and had finished with them. This was 
certainly largely true in his own ex¬ 
perience. He always refused to be 
judged by what he had spoken or 
written previously, claiming that it 
represented merely the state of his 
intellectual attainments and of his 
knowledge at the time. 

There is one outstanding doctrine, 
however, which he formulated and 
which in its amplified form has with¬ 
stood his own searching criticism and 
which has found almost universal 
acceptance by sociologists as a valuat)le 
contribution to the theory of social 
progress. I refer to his theory of the 
pain and pleasure economy, developed 
in his Theory of Social Forces, copy¬ 
righted and published by the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science 
in 1896. It sketched with remarkable 
insight the evolutionary stages in 
the transition from a deficit economy 
both material and spiritual, character¬ 
istic of primitive society, to a surplus 
economy characteristic of modern civi¬ 
lization, and pointed out the diflSculties 
involved in the transition. 

Valuable as this type of thinking 
is for the interpretation of social 
phenomena, there is another service 
which it rendered of no small con¬ 
sequence. It saved its author and 
all those who grasped its significance 
from vagaries and ill-conceived efforts 


at revolutionary social reform by 
placing reliance in social processes 
and in a social service that is con¬ 
structive and evolutionary. 

This leads logically to another phase 
of his influence which in many respects 
is as notable as that of his intellectual 
achievements. It emanated as a syn¬ 
thetic product from the quality of his 
mind and of his soul. Like all truly 
noble spirits his ultimate purpose, 
lying behind all proximate purposes, 
among which was his belief in the 
eflficacy of correct thinking, was to be 
of service to mankind. He believed 
in the final triumph of truth, and he 
contended earnestly for the faith that 
was in him; but he realized likewise 
that the best exposition of the truth 
is its exemplification in human person¬ 
ality and in self-conscious and wisely 
directed human effort. The result 
was that his students went out from 
his classroom imbued not only with a 
love of knowledge but also with a love 
for their fellowmen. As an inspirer 
of men to social service, he was without 
a superior, if not indeed without a peer. 
In the final appraisement of his in¬ 
fluence, I believe it will be foimd that 
he contributed more to the value of 
constructive social effort than to 
social theory. I think it is safe to say 
that his students today throughout 
the United States fill more responsible 
positions extending over a wider range 
of social work than those of any other 
teacher of his generation, with the 
possible exception of the late Charles 
S. Henderson. If this opinion is 
correct, it is, then, in the field of what 
popularly is termed practical sociology 
that his greatest contribution was made 
to our subject. 

Professor Patten’s clear perception 
of the principles of causation in the 
social sciences enabled him to foresee 
and to forecast the trend of events in 
social development with a remarkable 


341 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


degree of accuracy. Two samples must 
suffice to illustrate this observation. 

He was a prophet and a champion 
of the feminist movement. He read 
in the development of modern civiliza¬ 
tion the clear indications of the coming 
change in the status of women. He 
foresaw likewise the dangers and diffi¬ 
culties involved in this transition and 
with a tender solicitude he sought to 
direct the movement into broad and 
sane channels. No one, I think, 
understood the emotions and aspira¬ 
tions of women better than he. He 
believed in the education of women 
as a necessary prerequisite to the 
proper use of their developing op¬ 
portunities, and in their right to the 
ballot as a necessary condition of 
responsible citizenship. From the 
start he championed the cause of 
equal suffrage and in the early days 
of that conquest in order to identify 
himself conspicuously with* the move¬ 
ment, he marched in parades under 
the banner “Votes for Women” at no 
little sacrifice of personal and pro¬ 
fessional dignity in the opinion of 
many of his less progressive friends, if 
one might judge by their jibes at the 
time. 

The calmness and the absence of 
resentment which he exhibited on 
such occasions, and with which he 
endured criticism or reproach attendant 
upon the propagation of new or un¬ 
popular views, was due to the moral 
earnestness with which he held his 
convictions and to the unshakable 
belief that in the end the truth would 
prevail, that its advocates would be vin¬ 
dicated, and that the skeptic and scoff¬ 
er would turn disciple and defender. 

The best and most concrete example 
of his prophetic vision is the Wharton 
School of the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. Repudiating the theory of 
formal discipline, now almost com¬ 
pletely discarded, as the function of 


education, and seizing upon the doc¬ 
trine of interest, he forecast the trend 
in future educational needs. Given a 
body of subject matter which appealed 
to the student because it lay in the 
path of his developing interests, and 
given a proper presentation of that 
subject matter. Dr. Patten assumed 
that intellectual training followed as a 
matter of course. Without depreciat¬ 
ing the usefulness of cultural studies 
or the coordinating value of the more 
general aspects of the social sciences, 
he nevertheless by dint of continued 
insistence upon the practical, that is, 
concrete, courses which divided and 
redivided the field of economics to 
admit of intensive work in its several 
departments, by encouraging young 
instructors to take up and to develop 
these new subjects and to create a 
new literature in the form of text¬ 
books, and further by giving them the 
most generous encouragement and 
even in some instances personal finan¬ 
cial assistance in addition to recom¬ 
mendations for deserved promotion. 
Professor Patten succeeded in laying 
the foundations upon which has been 
erected the present institution with 
its thousands of students and alumni 
drawn from all the states of the Union 
and from many foreign countries. 

In pointing out these facts I do not 
wish to be understood as underrating 
in the slightest degree the genius and 
foresight of the founder of this school 
whose name it proudly bears, and who 
made possible by his generosity this 
successful experiment in education. 
Nor do I forget that able group of 
contemporaries whose cooperation and 
whose devotion and loyalty to a great 
purpose made possible its development. 
I mean merely to stress the signal 
contribution of Dr. Patten, to whom 
more than to any other man, I believe, 
belongs the honor and the credit for 
the actual internal development both 


342 


The Annals of the American Academy 


in theory and in content of a type of 
education which has proved its sound¬ 
ness and its utility, and has justified 
its existence by its extension in recent 
years to scores if not hundreds of 
other colleges and universities through¬ 
out the country and by a growth in 
the Wharton School itself which is 
limited only by its facilities. 

I cannot refrain from using this 
opportunity to allude to the purely 
personal side of his character. It was 
the happy lot of a few of us, because 
of our close association with him in the 
faculty of the Wharton School, to have 
known him in the intimacy of his 
private life. He was intensely human. 
His intellectual generosity was ex¬ 
ceeded only by the bigness of his heart. 
His interest not only in the achieve¬ 
ments but in the personal welfare of 
his boys, as he frequently called us, 
might be termed fatherly. His own 
personal comfort and convenience he 
always was willing and even anxious 
to sacrifice for the advancement of 
others. None of us is without many 
pleasant memories which we cherish 
of his kindly offices in our behalf. 
In all instances of physical, mental 
and even pecuniary distress he was at 
our beck and call and his response was 
always sympathetic and generous. 


yet he always insisted that he had never 
been imposed upon by his friends. 
When larger opportunities elsewhere 
were offered to any of the younger men 
of his group, selfish considerations of 
personal convenience were absolutely 
disregarded and his generous recom¬ 
mendations were given cheerfully, if 
he believed their best interests were 
involved. This was his fixed policy 
from which he never deviated. 

He was absolutely without envy or 
jealousy and he held no malice or 
resentment. In his work and in his 
play—a side of his life which only his 
intimate friends knew—^he was always 
congenial. 

It was mainly this deep feeling of 
personal regard which he inspired that 
drew to his bedside from time to time, 
during his last and protracted illness 
at the secluded village of Brown’s 
hlills-in-the-Pines, a place which he 
loved so much, a host of his colleagues 
and former students from far and 
near, and in whose visits and kindly 
attention he took great pride and 
comfort. No term of endearment 
could be found more fittingly to express 
our feeling of respect, of loyalty and of 
affection within this inner circle than 
the one familiarly employed when we 
called him “Uncle Simon.” 


Address of Dr. Lightner Witmer 
The American Philosophical Society 


After a talk with Patten, you found 
that he had somehow kindled a flame 
of thought, which kept on burning 
imtil you saw by its light many things, 
which before had been obscure. The 
particular idea you took from him 
might amaze you, it might even amuse 
you—it seldom convinced you—but 
it gripped you and you had to wrestle 
with it as Jacob wrestled with the 
angel. In the end, you changed your 
point of view without necessarily yield¬ 


ing to his opinions or accepting his facts. 
However, opinions and facts are more 
easily changed than intellectual and 
moral character, the medium in which 
Patten worked as a creative artist. He 
made men different from what they 
were in thought, feeling and conduct, 
because he changed their orientation. 
He was the artist teacher of whom 
Socrates is the prototype. 

In other words, he cut deep and re¬ 
vealed the hidden heart of things— 


343 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


he aimed high and sought the regenera¬ 
tion of the souls of men. The things he 
dealt with were of the earth-earthy, 
for he was by profession an economist, 
concerned with the exchange value of 
this world’s goods, but his orientation 
was that of the moral philosopher. 
When he talked on economics one got 
a point of view in psychology and 
philosophy,—new to me then, and 
too new even now, for many, but 
nevertheless, as he himself pointed 
out, as old as Adam Smith and David 
Hartley. He believed that intellectual, 
moral and economic values are terms 
in which men express their often con¬ 
flicting wishes and needs. The social 
sciences, among which he reckoned 
philosophy, psychology and religion, 
have a common origin in the study of 
behavior. He did not vulgarly believe 
that one science can be based upon 
another, but he kept adverting to the 
facts of human nature as the basis of 
every science. The range of his in¬ 
tellectual interests comprehended the 
Humanities. He was a part of, and 
contributed to that stream of modern 
thought which originated with Descar¬ 
tes. He gave unique value to the de¬ 
ductive method and to generalization: 
He persistently employed these meth¬ 
ods in working out the practical con¬ 
sequence of his theories. He struck 
the significant note of pragmatic 
philosophy—that pure science and 
applied science are inseparable—that 
truth must be in some way useful. 
If he goaded men to think for them¬ 
selves, he also inspired them to work 
for others. From a great height, he 
would point to the promised land of his 
creative imagination. If his students 
only vaguely discerned its features, 
obscured by the mist of distance, 
they did not fail to take to heart 
his urgent call to immediate service. 
His scholarship and personality enabled 
him to inspire a large and productive 


group of enlightened, well-trained and 
enthusiastic workers for the general 
welfare. 

There are some who cannot overlook 
the absence of good form. Men like 
Patten need a Boswell or a Plato to 
make their work palatable, and them¬ 
selves acceptable, to such as prefer the 
comfort of good form to the joy of 
original thinking. The essence of per¬ 
sonality, however, is idiosyncrasy. 
Eccentricity, abhorrent to what passes 
current as “good taste,” appeals to the 
artistic judgment, for the creative 
artist reveals undiscovered beauty and 
truth, compelling the vulgar in due 
process of time to change their tastes 
and their beliefs. A great sculptor 
would have preserved for all time, in 
bronze rather than in marble, that 
powerful and awkward boney struc¬ 
ture, the bizarre gesture, the kindly 
eyes, the thoughtful and wholly dis¬ 
interested sincerity, the fine dome of 
skull, the determined but pacific so¬ 
lidity of jaw. This statue would have 
made a companion piece to Barnard’s 
“Lincoln,” for the two were of the 
same physical type and presented for 
our admiration similar moral and 
intellectual qualities. I should like 
to dwell upon many characteristics 
they had in common, but I have time 
only to point out what lay at the 
heart of both—a profound and exalted 
ambition to achieve their best for 
humanity; hence, the aspiration for 
self-culture and the pertinacity that 
overcame deficiencies and ultimately 
brought success. The uncouth rail- 
splitter, without the benefit of a single 
unit of English in a cultural college 
course, achieved a perfect bit of English 
prose. The inarticulate plough-boy 
produced original work that compels 
speculation as to how long the annals 
of thought will keep his memory alive. 

William James is reported to have 
said that a man does well to write a 



344 


The Annals of the American Academy 


book which lasts as long as ten years. 
The immortal work not only endures 
but increases in relative value year 
by year. Adam Smith, Ricardo, Karl 
Marx and Henry George are more alive 
now than they were in their own day 
and generation. Genius rarely makes 
an instantaneous appeal, and if Patten 
had genius, I would expect the full 
note of just appreciation to be heard 
first as an echo from the opposite 
shore of the Atlantic. Intellectual 
originality is not an American weak¬ 
ness, and the eccentricity which is 
genius commonly gains recognition 
in this country only after it has won 
approbation abroad. Walt Wiitman 
must be crowned with French and 
British laurel before his “rustic com¬ 
patriots,” as a French critic rudely 
calls us, will give over either ignoring 
him, or treating him as “the village 
idiot.” That Henry George lived for 
a time in Philadelphia, I learned from 
the headmaster of a private academy 
where he had gone to school. “ We are 
not very proud of the fact,” the school¬ 
master added, with the furtive move¬ 
ment of one who closes a door quickly 
on the family skeleton. The closet 
door may now hang open, for Henry 
George has established an international 
reputation. Some day, a Frenchman, 
or perhaps a Russian, will show us 
Patten’s worth. I do not venture 
to estimate his meed of immortality, 
but I dare maintain that no Amer¬ 
ican contributor to economic thought, 
Henry George excepted, has a better 
chance of intellectual survival than 
Patten. 

Fundamentally a philosopher, with 
something of the poet’s insight and a 
prophet’s predilection, Patten antici¬ 
pated the trend of modern psychology 
in making human motives the central 
problem of economics. Joy and pain 
are the primary reactions of human 


beings to their environment; they are 
expressions of metabolism, which sets 
the stage for the economic problem 
of consumption. Joy, love, hope and 
faith express the anabolic process— 
they are a display of the surplus 
energy of the organism, which, if I 
understand Patten aright, he thought 
to be coincident with an economic 
surplus. Grief, hate, fear, and suspi¬ 
cion express the catabolic process, 
coincident with an economic deficit. 
It is to him that we owe the distinction 
between a pleasure and a pain economy 
and their identification with the Heaven 
and Hell motives of religious aspira¬ 
tion. The development of religion and 
morality, of intelligence and civiliza¬ 
tion, he thought should be stated so 
far as the material environment is 
concerned, in terms of economic sur¬ 
plus and deficit; so far as the organism 
is concerned, in terms of surplus energy. 
Some form of this generalization is 
destined, I believe, to play a leading 
part in the proximate development 
of several sciences. Time will show 
whether Patten was able to clothe his 
ideas in language sufficiently clear and 
forceful to have them long identified 
with his name. Henry George has 
the advantage of a perspicuous style; 
Patten excels in the comprehensive¬ 
ness of his generalizations. 

To praise and dispraise, Patten was 
singularly indifferent. Though appre¬ 
ciation cheered him, he went his way 
quite well without it. I seem to see 
him disappearing into the distance, his 
eyes fixed hopefully on some remote 
horizon. I think his hand is still at 
the plough, as it was throughout 
life, and the furrow he draws stretches 
deep and straight across the boundless 
plain, while in the furrow beneath the 
freshly turned sod lies revealed some 
of the mystery of our productive 
Mother Earth. 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


345 


Address of Dr. E. P. Cheyney 

Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania 


It is hard to realize, especially for 
those of us who did not see- him in his 
last sickness, that Dr. Patten is no 
longer in the land of the living. Plis 
was so distinct a personality, so indi¬ 
vidual, and so clearly marked from all 
others, that he was not one of any type, 
but just himself, and it is hard to be¬ 
lieve we will not meet him again in any 
of his familiar walks or places of work 
or recreation. It is also difficult for 
those of us whose life is spent so largely 
in the University to realize that his 
connection with it is finally and defi¬ 
nitely broken. It is true that for some 
years his official connection has been 
severed, but for so many years before 
that time his life and work were so inti¬ 
mately bound up with it and even 
afterward he was so readily accessible 
and so constantly consulted by those of 
us that remained, that he seemed still 
to belong to us. For almost forty 
years, almost as long as I can remember 
the University, he was an essential part 
of its life. I want to say a few words 
about each of three aspects of that life. 

From an administrative point of 
view his influence was well described by 
a somewhat informal expression which 
Professor Fullerton, who was then Vice- 
Provost, used one time as he came out 
from a committee or faculty meeting. 
He spoke of Dr. Patten as a “live wire.’’ 
His influence on the Faculty was al¬ 
ways a distinctive one. This was due 
partly no doubt to the fact that he 
came into an institution and a city of 
somewhat set habits and ideas from 
entirely different surroundings and 
experiences, and he brought their alien 
and invigorating influence with him. 
But it was also due to his maturity at 
the time he entered the University. 
He was already a man in his prime with 
his beliefs and ideals full-formed when 


he entered the University, and these 
ideas came into competition with those 
of men who were coming up through 
the ranks here, who had not before been 
compelled to formulate their views or 
to envisage the situation at any one 
time. Dr. Patten’s ideas had therefore 
a sharpness of outline and distinctive¬ 
ness that local policy did not possess. 
Then his individuality that I have 
already referred to always secured for 
his views and desires a hearing and an 
influence which, though they by no 
means always gained acceptance, ex¬ 
erted, I believe, a most valuable vivi¬ 
fying and broadening influence upon 
the development of the TVffiarton 
School, the College and the whole 
University. 

Secondly, Dr. Patten was one of that 
only too small number of professors of 
the University who are also writers, 
men whose personal influence is ex¬ 
tended through vastly wide circles 
through their printed works. Provost 
Smith told me that once when he was 
held up for a few minutes at a crossing 
by the turbulent traffic of a London 
street, he fell into talk with a chance 
fellow pedestrian who, when he found 
Dr. Smith was from Philadelphia, said 
to him, “That is where Patten and the 
University of Pennsylvania are, is it 
not.^” The Provost was much im¬ 
pressed, as well he might be. Others 
will speak of Dr. Patten’s work in 
economics. It would not be quite in¬ 
genuous for a student of history to 
seem to speak without reservation in 
praise of his writing, so far as that fell 
within the realm of history. His his¬ 
torical methods were much more 
subjective and interpretative than are 
generally approved in modern histor¬ 
ical seminars or groups of critical 
historians. Nevertheless, it is remark- 


346 


The Annals of the American Academy 


able in liow many cases other histo¬ 
rians, even the most critical, have 
reached the same results as he. A 
strong sense of reality, much insight 
and great common sense enabled 
him to make correct generalizations 
even with methods which used by 
others might lead only to fantastic 
results. 

Lastly, as a teacher; Dr. Patten once 
said to me that he would as leave teach 
little children as anyone else, that the 
interest was in seeing their minds work 
and “turning them inside out men¬ 
tally,’’ as he said. But his real power 
was at the other end of the educational 
scale, ‘with graduate students. His 
perpetually fresh vitality, his keen 
interest in absolutely everything, his 
especially strong response to human 
personality, were all infectious, and 
awakened minds and overcame leth¬ 
argy and aroused liberal impulses. 
Few men probably in the history of the 


University of Pennsylvania, have at¬ 
tracted more young men of good minds 
and left a permanent influence on more 
disciples who have themselves gone out 
to hold influential positions. 

To those of us who are getting older, 
the world often seems to be suffering an 
irretrievable loss by the death of its 
leaders in thought. But no one would 
have been less willing to accept this 
view than Dr. Patten. His invincible 
optimism had perfect trust in the fu¬ 
ture and in the discovery in the future 
of men adapted to its needs. The 
personal experiences of his later years; 
the war, so shocking to all his sympa¬ 
thies-and hopes; his domestic disap¬ 
pointments; his unnecessarily early 
severance from the University—none 
of them dampened his enthusiasm or 
diminished his keen interest in the 
world, an interest which, I am inclined 
to think, is the keynote to his character 
and influence. 


A Biographical Sketch of Simon Nelson Patten 

By Roswell C. McCrea, Ph.D. 

Columbia University 


A man’s life can be explained in 
composite terms of heredity and of 
physical and social environment. Un¬ 
fortunately the requisite data are 
seldom known in suflicient detail to 
work out an utterly truthful biograph¬ 
ical interpretation; and the task is 
further complicated by the preposses¬ 
sions of the biographer who is wont, 
often unconsciously, through this re¬ 
fractory to color his work as well as to 
shape it in terms of relevancy to his 
estimate of the truth-absorbing needs 
of his audience. These difficulties 
bulk particularly large in the case of 
such a man as Simon Nelson Patten. 
An enigma to relatives and friends 
during his formative years, their memo¬ 
ries are likely to be clouded by mis¬ 


understandings or colored by so strong 
a desire adequately to explain later 
achievements that early facts are 
perverted or distorted out of true per¬ 
spective. And Patten himself was 
little given to self-revelation. ‘The 
very objectiveness of his attitude to¬ 
ward himself, coupled with the uncon¬ 
ventionality of his views and manners 
and personal life, led to protective 
repressions, broken only occasionally 
by revealing glimpses. He never 
wrote any but the shortest of letters, 
and these always dealt with an im¬ 
mediate situation or with prospective 
action in some speciflc connection. I 
am inclined to think that to one forti¬ 
fied with the facts of Patten’s early life 
the key to its interpretation will more 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


347 


likely be found in the otherwise mys¬ 
tifying pages of his last book,^ pub¬ 
lished only a few weeks before the 
beginning of his final illness, than from 
any other source. So far as latter-day 
(since 1888) associates and acquaint¬ 
ances are concerned, with few excep¬ 
tions, their attitude is likely to be 
extravagantly laudatory, merely toler¬ 
ant or cynical and depreciatory. Facts 
obtained through such channels are 
bound to be colored by a selective bias. 
All in all, his written works are his best 
interpreter. These in turn need an 
interpreter; but even to the partially 
initiated they do reveal a progression 
of development in style, in thought, in 
imagination and in understanding of 
life such as should yield Patten a 
prominent place in the ranks of the 
world’s social philosophers. 

Patten was of pioneer stock, in whom 
pioneering had become a habit stronger 
than the love of any place or set of 
customs and associations. His mother 
was Elizabeth Nelson Pratt, whose 
progenitors came over to Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, in the Mayflower and 
the Ann in 1620 and 1623. The 
descendants of these early settlers 
subsequently spread to New York, 
Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Colorado and the 
Southwest. Among them was a Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of New 
York (1822-1836) and an Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States who was also a member 
of the Joint High Commission to settle 
the Alabama claims. Members of the 
family have served in all of this coun¬ 
try’s wars. 

Patten’s father, William Patten, like 
Elizabeth Pratt, whom he married in 
1843, was born in Washington County, 
New York. His grandparents had 
come from County Monaghan, Ireland, 
in June, 1794. They were of Scotch- 

» Mud Hollow —Doran. 


Irish extraction, rugged and unbending 
Presbyterians, gifted with energy and 
foresight typical of American pioneers 
of the frontier days. William Patten 
was a stern man, but a strain of humor 
tempered this trait with a measure of 
sympathy. He was mentally alert, 
physically impressive, and fairly facile 
of speech. Pie was the first farmer in 
De Kalb County, Illinois, to till his land 
and to erect a windmill. A typical, 
prosperous, progressive, mid-western 
farmer, he served as captain of infantry 
during the Civil War, as a member of 
the Illinois legislature, and for forty 
years as a ruling elder of the United 
Presbyterian Church. 

The Pratts were slower in body, 
mind and speech^ more incorrigibly 
Scotch in stubbornness of tempera¬ 
ment, more independent of the in¬ 
fluence of their social surroundings 
than the Patten strain. Simon’s 
mother died when he was but four 
years of age, of typhoid fever con¬ 
tracted while nursing him through an 
attack of the same disease; but the 
Pratt heredity remained with him, 
dominant both in physical and in 
mental traits. 

In May, 1843, William Patten took 
up a tract of virgin land in northern 
Illinois, and in January, 1845, im¬ 
mediately after his marriage with 
Elizabeth Pratt in Cossayuna, New 
York, moved with her to the new 
Sandwich homestead. Two sons were 
born here before 1850, but both died 
early. In those days infant mortality 
was high in the mosquito-infested, un¬ 
drained prairie stretches of De Kalb 
County, Illinois. In 1850, William 
Patten followed the gold-seekers of his 
day to Sacramento, California, return¬ 
ing by way of Panama. The third son, 
Simon Nelson Patten, was born on 
May 1, 1852, a year after his father’s 
return, at the home of his mater¬ 
nal grandparents in Cossayuna, New 


348 


The Annals of the American Academy 


York. The early months of his infancy 
were spent here, away from the mala¬ 
rial mosquito, but the succeeding boy¬ 
hood years were altogether spent in the 
neighborhood of the Sandwich farm. 
He once told me a story of his first visit 
to Chicago which is illustrative of his 
father’s parental attitude, and sugges¬ 
tive of the independence of his youthful 
years. He was then in the early teens. 
His father was in the habit of making 
periodic business trips to Chicago, then 
a city of about the present population 
of Trenton, New Jersey. On this 
occasion the two reached Chicago in 
the early morning. At the railway 
terminal Patten elder gave Simon 
several dollars, and abandoned him for 
the day with the suggestion that he 
look around the city and at a fixed 
time in the late afternoon be on hand 
at the railroad station for the return 
trip. During the day, Simon walked 
many miles, observed, reflected, and 
met his father at the appointed time 
for the journey home. This was 
one of his early lessons in the art of 
pedagogy. 

The physical environment of Pat¬ 
ten’s boyhood and young manhood was 
a large prairie farm, immensely fertile 
and diversified in its activities. It 
yielded an abundance of the physical 
essentials of everyday life. The sur¬ 
rounding country was growing apace. 
The population of Illinois between 1840 
and 1870 expanded from 8 to 50 per 
square mile. The area about Chicago 
grew even more rapidly. This growth 
was simultaneous with the great agri¬ 
cultural revolution, which displaced 
the scythe, the cradle and the flail, 
with the mowing machine, the reaper 
and binder and the threshing machine. 
Growth, improvement and prosperity 
went hand in hand. Social diversion 
was meager, but activities were vigor¬ 
ous and varied; and interests beyond 
the farm had a political complexion. 


strongly colored by the partisan at¬ 
mosphere of Civil War and Recon¬ 
struction days. 

These conditions left an indelible 
impress on Patten’s mental outlook, 
not yet related to any broad philosophy 
of life, but later to afford the germ of 
his surplus philosophy and one of the 
underlying phases of his theory of 
consumption. Even as a boy he was 
much given to fits of silence and brood¬ 
ing. It may be that he grew too fast— 
at fourteen he was 6 feet 2 inches in 
height—to develop into the active, 
healthy, imitative animal, commonly 
known as “boy.” He was a failure as 
a farm hand, perhaps because he lacked 
requisite physical strength and endur¬ 
ance; but in any case, he was absent- 
minded and undependable in perform¬ 
ing routine tasks to a degree that 
puzzled and at times exasperated his 
father. It was the pioneer urge in new 
guise. In its commonly recognized 
form this was destined to take the 
brothers and cousins of his home 
neighborhood to Iowa, Colorado, Okla¬ 
homa and the produce markets of 
Chicago. He turned to things of the 
spirit. It is not strange that his father 
was puzzled and that his associates 
thought him “queer.” Too hard- 
headed by ancestry and early associa¬ 
tions to be other than a mundane 
philosopher, yet too devoid of imitative 
qualities to absorb and repeat and 
elaborate the thought of others, he was 
destined to be bold and original and 
pragmatic to a degree inscrutable to 
more conventional-minded contempo¬ 
raries. 

In the district school of his home 
community he was one of about thirty 
pupils presided over by a single teacher. 
Spelling and mental arithmetic were 
the important disciplines. The former 
meant little to Patten; the latter ap¬ 
pealed to him and he developed facility 
in it; but on the whole his native reac- 


349 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


tions to fields and fences, barns and 
crops had larger significance in his 
mental development than the formal¬ 
izing influences of the schoolroom. 
Always genial, never wilfully rebellious, 
he was of too intractable stuff ever to 
be fitted into any conventional mold. 

At the age of 17, he "went to Jennings 
Seminary at Aurora, Illinois. The 
presence of jurists in the ancestral tree 
suggested that Patten’s oddities of 
mental make-up might be reminiscent 
of the qualities of these forebears. 
Enrolment at Jennings Seminary was 
to be the first step in a process of educa¬ 
tion for the law. This Seminary was 
the most noted institution of its sort in 
the region. Little more than a high 
school, judged by present-day educa¬ 
tional standards, it had much of the 
tone of a college. Among its pupils in 
1869 was Joseph French Johnson, 
whose friendship was to mean much to 
Patten in succeeding years. Its cur¬ 
riculum consisted mainly of mathe¬ 
matics, ancient languages and moral 
philosophy. There was a measure of 
urbanity in the life of the school com¬ 
munity into which Patten fitted as 
awkwardly as in later years he did into 
the more cosmopolitan life of Philadel¬ 
phia. His lack of adaptability never 
crystallized into the hostile aloofness 
of the boor; he was always a gentleman 
and he valued association with gentle 
folks; but for the superficialities of 
polite intercourse he utterly lacked 
acquisitive instinct. 

He was graduated from Jennings in 
the spring of 1874. He then returned 
to the farm at Sandwich where he spent 
a year, during which the idea of be¬ 
coming a lawyer was definitely aban¬ 
doned. Philosophy intrigued him— 
thought about the essentials of every¬ 
day living and of progress. After a 
short period of study at Northwestern 
University his thoughts were turned to 
Germany as a home of philosophy in 


which he might find the impetus to » 
further development. In the fall of 
1874 his friend Johnson had gone to 
Halle with Edmund J. James, whom 
Patten had thus far never met. Let¬ 
ters came from Halle recounting in¬ 
cidents in student life and stressing the 
German devotion to philosophy. The 
idea of joining Johnson and James as a 
student of Conrad and his colleagues 
at Halle, made a strong appeal. His 
father, generous of disposition and 
interested in a possible solution of a 
baffling problem, was easily persuaded. 
The little trunk was packed and the 
German adventure in education began 
in the fall of 1875. The following 
three years were rich in experience, not 
so much because of the offering of the 
lecture-hall or of the seminar as because 
of contact with a new set of conditions 
in the social life of Germany. There 
was a sharpness of contrast with the 
Illinois of Patten’s day, full of signifi- 
eance to a mind awake to the realities 
of life. There were culture, traditions, 
a growing nationalist spirit, a developed 
local social life, individual thrift and an 
obvious play of intelligence in control 
of nature’s forces. Illinois was a 
chapter on the boimty of nature, a 
denial of the pretensions of Ricardian 
philosophy. Germany was a lesson on 
the idea of conscious adaptation of 
activities to productive capacities, 
personal and environmental, with re¬ 
sulting economy and social gain. The 
eombined experience suggested that 
nature is generous, and that man is 
capable of coping with the problems 
of eitistence. A philosophy of hope 
displaces the dismal pessimism of the 
Manchester School. 

Patten came back to America an¬ 
other step advanced on the road of 
self-education. Throughout his years 
of schooling, the formal work of class¬ 
room or lectme-hall had meant little 
in his development. His sister recently 


350 


The Annals of the American Academy 


wrote: “I think no teacher meant 
much to him. He was a pupil who 
would learn without a teacher.” It 
was the case of an original mind react¬ 
ing directly to conditions as these 
presented themselves in the successive 
phases of his physical and social sur¬ 
roundings. During his three years 
in Germany he did not acquire even 
a passable use of the German language, 
but he did get impressions and out of 
these he wove his philosophy. 

He returned to this country by way 
of England where he spent six weeks 
in the late summer of 1878. He was 
then twenty-six years of age. The 
following decade was a period of 
discouraging experience, marked by 
rural isolation and physical suffering, 
with no significant accomplishment. 
From May, 1878, to September, 1879, 
he worked on his father s farm, study¬ 
ing at intervals, but in the main in¬ 
cubating and drifting. Aside from 
teaching, there was little for him to do; 
and even in this profession, his un¬ 
gainly physique, unconventionality of 
dress and demeanor, halting use of 
language and apparent perverseness 
and impracticality of thought were 
against him. His father was dis¬ 
appointed and discouraged, but after 
much travail of spirit on the part of 
both father and son, it was once more 
decided that Simon should study for 
the profession of law. With this end 
in view, he entered a Chicago law 
school in the fall of 1879. After six 
weeks of study his eyes failed him and 
for nearly three years he lived in pain 
and partial darkness. Bitterness was 
his portion during the early part of 
this period; but later, physical labor 
and the compensations of thought 
mitigated his suffering; and through 
it all he developed a feeling of sym¬ 
pathy for the victims of ill-fortune 
which never deserted him. 

Meanwhile his friend Johnson had 


taken up journalistic work in Chicago, 
and James had become a member 
of the faculty of the University of 
Pennsylvania. In May, 1882, Patten 
found his way to James, in the course 
of a visit to relatives in the East, 
and was taken to a Philadelphia 
oculist who fitted him with glasses 
which re-created his vision. On re¬ 
turning home, he taught for a year 
in the old district school in which 
he had formerly sat as a pupil, the 
next year moving to a better school 
position at Homewood, Illinois. Mean¬ 
while, the outlines of a book were 
taking shape in his mind. The de¬ 
veloping of these outlines and the 
reduction of resulting details to written 
form was a trying task. Those who 
saw the early manuscript oi The Prem¬ 
ises of Political Economy recognized 
its brilliancy and originality of con¬ 
ception but pronounced it unbelievably 
crude in form. With the aid of John¬ 
son and of James, who in a measure 
succeeded in correcting grammatical 
errors and in giving it less deficient 
rhetorical form, it reached comple¬ 
tion. James found for it a publisher 
in Philadelphia, and it immediately 
brought recognition to its author. 
In the spring of 1888, while serving as 
Superintendent of Schools in Rhodes, 
Iowa, Patten received notification of 
his appointment to a professorship 
of political economy in the University 
of Pennsylvania. He took up his 
work in this institution in the fall of 
1888, and from that time until his 
unwilling retirement in 1917, indeed 
until his death in 1922, he knew no 
other institutional allegiance. ^ These 

2 For an illuminating review and interpretation 
of Patten’s career, more detailed than space* 
limitations here permit, see articles by Rexford 
TugA^'ell in contemporaneous numbers of The 
Journal of Political Economy and Publications of 
the American Economic Association, I am much 
indebted to Mr. Tugwell for the privilege of 
seeing and using his manuscripts. 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon Patten 


351 


were his productive years, marked 
by a growing literary output, by a 
widening circle of disciples, and by an 
increasing influence on ideas, on in¬ 
stitutions and on programs of social 
reconstruction. 

His written work ^ shows a con¬ 
tinuity of intellectual development 
which many who lack his pragmatic 
quality have mistaken for inconsist¬ 
ency. He was always willing to 
abandon the earlier children of his 
mind in the interest of a more com¬ 
prehensive truth, even though this 
seemed to involve him in contradictions 
with himself as well as with those who 
had adopted his progeny. His first 
book. The Premises of Political Econ¬ 
omy, was an Americanization of the 
economics of Mill. In it he emphasized 
the importance of consumption habits 
in shaping national life and combated 
the assumption that the individual 
knows his own interest and if left 
alone will secure it. His monograph 
on The Consumption of Wealth carries 
this thought still further. 

The Economic Basis of Protection 
ushered in a new set of ideas. He 
here inquired into the differences, 
physical and institutional, that distin¬ 
guished America from England. He 
concluded that the weakness of the 
English economics was that it made 
no concession to changes in men and 
goods. He followed up this idea in 
his Dynamic Economics with a working 
out of the laws of economic progress. 
The close relationship between chang¬ 
ing local conditions and changing 
policies was emphasized; progress and 
change were depicted as normal phe¬ 
nomena. 

The Interpretation of Ricardo in¬ 
troduces the next phase in his thought. 
Ricardo, a city man and a proponent of 

® Professor Patten’s Theory of Prosperity by 
Henry R. Seager, Annals, March, 1902, is an 
excellent review of Patten’s thought to 1902. 


the new capitalist-industrialism, was 
a free trader; Malthus, reasoning like 
a farmer in the Corn Laws controversy, 
was a protectionist. Patten regarded 
these conflicting attitudes and their 
antecedents as illustrations of the 
fact that local conditions determine not 
only the relative desirability of varying 
social policies, but also shape ideas 
and modes of reasoning. This pro¬ 
gression of thought led him to a re¬ 
pudiation of the old associational 
psychology and the old utilitarian 
ethics as foundations of economic 
theory. He therefore ventured to 
set forth new psychological principles 
to show how previously unrecognized 
mental traits tend to shape social 
progress. He did this in The Theory 
of Social Forces, in the introduction 
to which he said: 

A new social philosophy cannot pass 
beyond the inductive stage until these 
(psychic) factors are recognized and a pic¬ 
ture of mental activity constructed which 
emphasizes the elements neglected by the 
old philosophy. Even if the type of 
psychology which I present is faulty, it can 
at least serve as a provisional philosophy 
until psychologic research is far enough 
advanced to furnish a better basis. 

The Development of English Thought 
is even more directly the outgrowth 
of his essay on Ricardo. In it he 
attempts to do for the whole English 
nation what the essay tried to do with 
reference to two individuals. Speak¬ 
ing of the undertaking, he says: 

The theory presented is scarcely open to 
question, though some of its corollaries may 
not be evident. Survival is determined 
and progress created by a struggle for the 
requisites of wEich the supply is insuffi¬ 
cient. These requisites are the goods for 
wEich men strive or the means by which 
they meet evils. A group of such definite 
objects, upon which the life and happiness 
of each‘race depend, always exists. The 
environment formed by this group of 
economic objects surrounding and support- 


352 


The Annals of the American Academy 


ing a given race, changes with the several 
objects on which the interests of the race 
are centered. With the new objects come 
new activities and new requisites for 
survival. To meet these new conditions, 
the motives, instincts and habits of the race 
are modified; new modes of thought are 
formed; and thus, by the modification of 
institutions, ideals and customs, all of the 
characteristics of the civilization are re¬ 
constructed. These changes take place in 
a regular order; the series repeats itself in 
each environment. In its amplification 
and illustration lies the economic interpreta¬ 
tion of history. 

Professor Patten had two reasons for 
selecting England for his larger experi¬ 
ment in “economic interpretation.” In 
the first place, the comparative isola¬ 
tion into which English civilization has 
developed makes the problem of inter¬ 
pretation easier than it would be for 
either of the great continental nations. 
Secondly, English experience had sup¬ 
plied the basis for the three economic 
systems in which he was most inter¬ 
ested; that of Ricardo, that of Marx, 
and, in a more roundabout way, that 
of George. He hoped, tlirough his pro¬ 
founder study, to show that the prem¬ 
ises on which each of these writers 
based his conclusions in regard to the 
future of society were only of tempo¬ 
rary validity. 

It would take far too much space to 
attempt an estimate of The Develop¬ 
ment of English Thought. It is Pro¬ 
fessor Patten’s own opinion that his 
method of inteiq:)retation answered 
fairly well until he came to Adam 
Smith. Here he admits it broke down, 
and it was his partial failure to portray 
Adam Smith satisfactorily that led him 
to formulate the leading distinction 
that appears in his Theory of Pros¬ 
perity, that between “existing condi¬ 
tions” and “heredity” as determinants 
of income.^ 

The Theory of Prosperity dealt with 

^ Seager, swpra cit. 


the “existing conditions” or economic 
phases of this contrast. To contem¬ 
porary economists this work suggested 
a turning back on Patten’s part to 
the confines of strictly economic gen¬ 
eralization. But this was done in 
iconoclastic mood, and with no thought 
of setting bounds to his pioneering 
spirit. Heredity and Social Progress, 
a complementary volume, soon fol¬ 
lowed its predecessor. With a broad 
sweep of philosophic assumption and 
with widely ramifying social interest 
he essayed an analysis of discontent 
and its remedies. There was sharp¬ 
ness of contrast in his diagnosis be¬ 
tween limitations on progress set by 
hereditary inliibitions and possibilities 
inherent in “existing” or economic 
conditions. 

Heredity and Social Progress marks 
the end of one era and the beginning 
of another in Patten’s development 
as author and social philosopher. 
At this point he turned from his earlier 
audience of scholars to the broader 
public. This change of emphasis was 
an inevitable outcome of his pragmatic 
view of truth, vigorously set forth and 
defended in his address as President of 
the American Economic Association. 
Aside from the Reconstruction of Eco¬ 
nomic Theory, his later books all show 
this trend and reflect a definite design 
to influence popular thought and social 
action. With growing ease and vigor 
of presentation, and with increasingly 
picturesque and aphoristic style he 
produced a series of volumes wide in 
range of social interest and appeal. 
The New Basis of Civilization, Product 
and Climax, The Social Basis of Reli¬ 
gion, Social Hymns and Mud Hollow 
were the outstanding works of this last 
period. All of these embody the fun¬ 
damental ideas of earlier years modi¬ 
fied at many points and supplemented 
in detail by subsequent experience, 
observation and reflection. Through- 


353 


Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


years of literary endeavor, 
his books were interspersed with a long 
array of articles in technical journals 
and semi-popular periodicals. But the 
best summary of his ultimate philoso¬ 
phy of life is doubtless that presented 
in the second or interpretative half of 
his final work, Mud Hollow. This 
merges the surviving elements of his 
thought of earlier years with the near- 
Freudian psychology of his latter-day 
interest. As a synthesis of ideas it is a 
rare combination of purposive icono- 
clasm and of hopeful prophesy. 

Patten was a baffling personality. 
As a thinker he diverged far from 
accepted norms. Almost intuitive in 
his intellectual judgments, he refused 
to reason deductively from commonly 
recognized premises, and was equally 
averse to generalizing inductively from 
a broad array of data. He seemed 
rather to survey the field and to pick 
from the confusing mass of phenomena 
under review the sample datum which 
seemed to him typical and interpreta¬ 
tive. He was in consequence alw^ays 
original and suggestive, bringing to 
light the play of factors too likely 
to be neglected or ignored by those 
whose thinking conformed to traditional 
modes. He was, of course, misunder¬ 
stood by such, and condemned as un¬ 
sound and erratic. This is not sur¬ 
prising; for anyone who had not kept 
himself steadily in touch with the pro¬ 
gression of Patten’s ideas from month 
to month—and few away from his im¬ 
mediate circle of influence could do 
that—would inevitably feel a sense of 
utter remoteness from the latest novel 
idea. Most of us are imitative and 
eclectic; Patten was completely inde¬ 
pendent and original. The chance of 
an identity in trains of thought between 
him and another was almost infinitesi¬ 
mal. 

On the emotional side of his makeup 
he was conservative and loyal to the 


last degree; loyal to friends, to party 
and to the institutions with which he 
was identified, though seldom in in¬ 
tellectual agreement with them. An 
illustrative incident will throw light 
on this seeming contradiction. No one 
had been more interested than Patten 
in sponsoring the social ideals which 
were adopted by the Progressive Party 
in their platform of 1912. Many of 
his most intimate friends and disciples 
were identified with the movement. 
Yet, he voted the Republican ticket, 
and on the night when the election re¬ 
turns came in, showing a heavier Pro¬ 
gressive vote than that polled by the 
Republicans, he was a picture of disgust 
and dismay. I chided him for his 
inconsistency. He replied: “ When the 
torchlights pass by and the band plays, 
I’m one of the boys of ’61. I can’t 
help it.” The same emotional con¬ 
servatism was shown by his life-long 
membership in the Presbyterian Church, 
as well as by his unwavering allegiance 
to the University of Pennsylvania. 

He possessed a fund of native shrewd¬ 
ness quite at variance with his appear¬ 
ance of rustic simplicity. Never dis¬ 
honest, and never seeking purely per¬ 
sonal ends, he would often resort to an 
indirectness of action and of expression, 
equally mystifying to friend and op¬ 
ponent. This is a sample of his guile: 
Some years back, an appointment was 
about to be made to an academic posi¬ 
tion. Those responsible for the choice 
of the new offlcer wished to avoid the 
appointment of a Patten partisan. 
Patten induced an acquaintance, X, 
who was averse to any change in his 
own status, to allow his name to be 
presented as one of two nominees for 
the new post, on the plea that two 
names must be presented and that the 
appointment would unquestionably go 
to a second man, Y. X consented to 
the arrangement on these representa¬ 
tions. Patten vigorously supported Y. 


24 


354 


The Annals of the American Academy 


X, to his own chagrin, received the 
appointment. 

This quality of canniness, coupled 
with a vital interest and with an ability 
to view problems from odd angles 
which did not occur to others, made him 
a much sought and highly valued coun¬ 
sellor. The later successes and public 
prominence of many of his old students 
are to be attributed in no small measure 
to their frequent touch with him, to his 
farseeing grasp of their problems and to 
the concreteness of resulting commen¬ 
tary and counsel. Tolerant of differ¬ 
ences of opinion, unresentful of unkind¬ 
ness or neglect, non-conformist in 
views but conservative in action, gifted 
with uncanny insight, he was a molder 
'Of minds and a shaper of character far 
I beyond the realization of his contempo¬ 
raries. 

The value of a man’s short span of 
.life is measured largely by what he 
leaves behind in the lives of his fellows, 
in his written work, and in the institu¬ 
tional life of the community. On each 
of these counts Dr. Patten deserves 
a ranking little recognized except by 


those who knew him best. His un¬ 
selfishness of purpose, objectiveness 
of outlook and unconventionality of 
manner have so obscured his merits or 
so completely merged the results of his 
labors with those of others, that the 
significance of his life-work is likely to 
be misunderstood or ignored. This is 
much as he would have it. Acclaim 
with him was no substitute for sub¬ 
stantial accomplishment; and the latter 
he had in full measure. His written 
work is replete in suggestiveness to a 
degree not attained by any contempo¬ 
rary economist. He has said the last 
word on nothing; but his last word is 
more likely to be the first word in 
new restatements of truth than any of 
the words of hypercritical traditional¬ 
ists. His old students have become 
men of note in every walk of life in a 
measure that is surely not fortuitous. 
And the organized life of the com¬ 
munity in a wide variety of educa¬ 
tional aspects has been enriched by 
institutions which are at once a projec¬ 
tion of his personality and his lasting 
memorial. 


Simon Nelson Patten—^Teacher and Friend, Economist and 

Sociologist 

By Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay 
President, The Academy Political Science, New York City 


The special session of the American 
- Academy of Political and Social Science 
to honor the memory of one of its 
■founders, coming so soon after he has 
.left us, is not the occasion for any at¬ 
tempt to praise in a detached and 
scientific manner, the great value of 
his service to the Academy, to economic 
science, to the profession of teaching 
or to the many public interests that 
Dr. Patten always had at heart. This 
is rather, I take it, a gathering of his 
friends, and those who have been asked 
i:o participate are for the most part 


his very long-time friends, his pupils, 
and those to whom he has been for 
many many years a very real friend, 
philosopher and guide. I, certainly, 
for one cannot participate in any de¬ 
tached or objective spirit in a mere 
presentation or elaboration of his claims 
to greatness or to remembrance by 
those who knew little or nothing of his 
wonderful personality and of the depth 
and quality of that friendship which 
meant so much to so many of us. He 
shared'the best that was in him gener¬ 
ously and freely with his students and 


355 


Tribute to the M^emory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


his colleagues, and he opened his heart 
and mind frankly and completely to 
an unusually large circle of those who 
valued his friendship. 

The number of his pupils into whose 
lives and personal affairs he entered 
in a most intimate way was unusually 
large. No one knows how many, or 
to what extent he shared most gener¬ 
ously his own meagre financial re¬ 
sources with promising students who 
Yvere thereby enabled to complete 
their academic preparation for useful 
careers. Such material aid, in addition 
to wise and intimate personal counsel, 
was given so unostentatiously and as a 
matter of course that its recipients, 
who were many, were led to feel that 
they were conferring on the donor 
a favor, and sharing in a common 
resource dedicated to the realization 
of common aims and ideals. 

I doubt whether, in the whole history 
of secondary and higher education in 
America, there can be found as many 
teachers as could be counted on the 
fingers of one hand who were his peers 
in inspiration and as a source of dy¬ 
namic power for as many persons as 
Dr. Patten counted within the circle 
of his intimate friends. It was my 
privilege to be a member of the first 
class he met when he began his career 
as a university teacher at the Univer¬ 
sity of Pennsylvania thirty-four years 
ago. It was not many months before 
a little group of us came to know him 
as intimately and to look to him as 
confidently and expectantly for in¬ 
tellectual counsel and wisdom as 
though he had been our mentor and 
friend for years. 

Charles Peter Beauchamp Jefferys, 
Jr ., was the class historian of ’89, and 
in the class history he speaks of Pro¬ 
fessor Patten having joined the Whar¬ 
ton School Faculty in our senior year 
and then goes on to say: “We think 
Professor Patten is ‘just splendid.’ 


Patten calls us ‘his boys’ and I don’t 
think there exists a stronger bond 
of union and sympathy in college 
circles than between Patten and ’89 in 
the Wharton School.” That experi¬ 
ence was repeated in the case of an 
ever widening circle of students from 
every succeeding class until he retired 
from active teaching four years ago 
after thirty years of active service. 
Such was the magnetic and sympa¬ 
thetic insight, and the stimulating and 
attractive power of a great teacher. 

Personally, and I am sure that what 
I am about to say has been the ex¬ 
perience of many of his friends, there 
has not been a single year, and scarcely 
a single month in all these long years 
since that friendship began in 1889, 
that I have not gone to Dr. Patten, 
usually in person and sometimes by 
letter when thousands of miles of 
ocean have separated us, with every 
serious problem and decision that I 
have had to meet in life and always 
found sympathy, courage, deeper faith 
in the worth of high endeavor and 
refreshment of spirit. 

He was, indeed, a great teacher, but 
he was a greater economist. Economic 
science was for him not a mere section 
or isolated department of human 
knowledge, nor did he regard it as in 
any sense a superstructure imposed 
upon the traditions and learning of 
the race; economics was of the fiber and 
essence of all knowledge. In his 
thinking it furnished the fundamental 
key or explanation of life and of man’s 
adjustment both to the physical uni¬ 
verse in which he lives and to the 
moral and spiritual order of which he 
is a part. It was his “Lebensans- 
chauung,” his point of departure in the 
interpretation of life and in the imder- 
standing of its laws of growth and 
development. This is why he always 
showed a little impatience with what 
seemed to him the narrow current 


356 


The Annals of the American Academy 


controversies over the economic in¬ 
terpretation of history, because both 
the proponents and the critics of that 
doctrine, as generally stated and under¬ 
stood, seemed to him to be dealing in 
half truths. His conception of econom¬ 
ics and of economic law, and more 
especially of the economic mode of 
thought was not materialistic; it had 
its application and significance for 
the whole of life and for every kind and 
phase of human motive. 

Patten came of sturdy, American 
stock. He was born and reared on 
the frontier of American economic life. 
He was possessed of the pioneer spirit 
which accounts for much of the origi¬ 
nality and rugged simplicity of his 
thought. He had a marvelous faculty 
of making economic analysis, economic 
laws, and an economic point of view 
seem very real and vital to the new 
student and satisfying to the inquiring 
mind. AMiile he was well grounded in 
the history and logic of English classical 
economic theory and had been pro¬ 
foundly influenced by the German 
historical method, his approach in 
introducing the new student to the 
subject was never the traditional one 
of presenting either the formal con¬ 
clusions of classical English political 
economy or the discussion of the 
history of economic theory. He Avas a 
devout follower and admirer of John 
Stuart Mill, but the secret of his power, 
both in the matter of exposition and 
teaching of economics as well as his 
own contribution to the development 
of economic science, has always seemed 
to me to lie in the fact that he handled 
the problems of economics very much 
according to the methods of modern 
engineering science. He began with 
an analysis of present conditions and 
factors, whether the problem was 
simple and concrete or complex and 
intricate with respect to both the 
factors of time and space. It was 


thus that he succeeded in making 
economics contribute, whatever the 
value of the immediate practical results, 
to furnishing a solid intellectual grip 
on difficult problems. 

Patten combined with a vivid im¬ 
agination, which enabled him to visual¬ 
ize, simplify and clarify the factors in 
the discussion of a complicated eco¬ 
nomic problem or even of a whole 
stage or stratum of social development, 
a happy faculty of invention of apt 
phrases or new terminology. Who 
will ever forget the “Stalwarts” and 
the ' “Clingers, ” the social-debtor 
classes, the pain and pleasure economy, 
and a score or more of similar concepts 
that gave his students and his readers 
a new, illuminating and sure foothold 
in the exploration and examination of 
new facts in our economic world. 
He was not always skillful in the 
exercise of his powers of expression and 
much of his voluminous writing came 
as a result of painful and laborious 
work. Often the indirection of his 
methods in attaining his objectives 
puzzled his friends and misled his 
less understanding critics. It has al¬ 
ways seemed to me due in large part 
to this limitation in his power of ex¬ 
pression of which he was keenly con¬ 
scious, and not to inconsistencies or 
change of front in his scientific meth¬ 
ods. In the end he always succeeded 
in the classroom and in public or 
private discussion and, I think for 
the most part in his published work, 
in making his point clear to those 
who were patient enough to follow 
him in his successive efforts at re¬ 
statement of a position which he wished 
to take. 

While economic theory was bred in 
every bone and fibre of his being, 
Patten was no mere theorist. He 
never took any satisfaction in philo¬ 
sophical hair-splitting. It was rather 
the application of economic reasoning 


357 


Tribute to the IVCemory of Dr. Simon N. Patten 


to the practical rules of conduct for the 
individual and for society, to social 
organization and group activity, that 
interested him most. He was quite as 
much a sociologist as an economist. 
In fact, had he come upon the stage 
of academic life a generation later and 
found theoretical and applied econom¬ 
ics in America in their present de¬ 
velopment at the close of his academic 
career, I think he would have cast in 
his lot with the sociologist rather than 
with the economist. As it was, in 
his Theory of Social Forces^ and his 
New Basis of Civilization, as well as in 
The Social Basis of Religion, Culture 
and War, and numerous other mono¬ 
graphs and articles published in recent 
years, he has made no small contribu¬ 
tion to sociological theory, to the study 
of social organization and social forces, 
and especially to experimental sociol¬ 
ogy in the fields of social legislation and 
social work. Perhaps a too exclusive 
emphasis on the economic factor or 
basis of social organization and social 
evolution has made his contribution 
to the formal organization of a science 
of society less fruitful than it would 
have been had he carried his researches 
farther in the fields of biology, an¬ 
thropology and cultural history. I 
am confident, however, that the so¬ 


ciologists of the future in the re-state¬ 
ment of sociological theory, after the 
present stage of integration of so¬ 
ciological research is complete, will 
})ut a high value upon and give a 
permanent place to many of Patten’s 
sociological concepts. I am even more 
confident that many of these concepts 
will serve a useful purpose and come 
to be regarded as the most valuable 
contribution made by any American 
of this generation to the foundations 
of applied sociology. This is a field 
in which American effort has led the 
world through the wide range of 
experimentation in legislation, through 
the expression of the humane and phil¬ 
anthropic impulses of a society with a 
growing social surplus, and through 
the efforts to realize effective democracy 
in government and political institu¬ 
tions. While I suppose we shall all, 
as his students and friends, prefer to 
remember Dr. Patten for his labor and 
service as an economist, and no Ameri¬ 
can teacher has placed us under a 
greater debt of gratitude for that work, 
and while the fruits of his service to 
sociology are not yet fully harvested 
and can perhaps not yet be fully 
evaluated, I believe our indebtedness 
will ultimately be none the less for this 
work. 


A Bibliography of the Works of Simon N. Patten 

By Rexford G. Tug well 
Columbia University, New York City 

I. Books 

1. 1878. Das finanzwesen der Staaten und Stadte der Nordamerikanischen 

Union. 

Jena: G. Fischer. Out of print. 

2. 1885. The Premises of Political Economy; Being a Re-examination of Certain 

Fundamental Principles of Economic Science. 

Lippincott, pp. 244. Out of print. 

3. 1889. The Consumption of Wealth. 

Publications of the University of Pennsylvania. Pol. Econ. & 
Pub. Law Series, No. 4. Second ed. 1901. Out of print. 

4. 1890. The Economic Basis of Protection. 

Lippincott, pp. 144. Second ed. 1895. Out of print. French 
translation from the second ed. by F. Lepelletier appeared as: 
Les Fondements economique de la protection^ avec une preface par 
Paul CauweSy Paris. 

V. Giard & E. Briere, 1899. 

Italian ed: La base economica della protezione. Traduzione di C. 
Baery in Biblioteca dell economista TorinOy 1897. Series 4, Vol. 1, 
pt. 2, pp. 437-511. 

5. The Principles of Rational Taxation. 

Publications of the University of Pennsylvania. Pol. Econ. & 
Pub. Law Series, No. 6. 

Papers of the Phila. Social Science Assn., pp. 25. Out of print. 

6. 1892. The Theory of Dynamic Economics. 

Publications of the University of Pennsylvania. Pol. Econ. & 
Pub. Law Series, Whole No. 11. (Vol. Ill, No. 2), pp. 153. Out 
of print. 

7. The Theory of Social Forces. Supp. to Annals, 1896, pp. 151. 

(Listed also among periodical publications.) 

Italian translation in 1903 appeared as: 

. Teoria delle Forze Sociali. 

C. Colombo, Editore, Roma. 

No. 2. Biblioteca Internationale da Sociologia Teorica. 

Diretta del Dr. Fausto Squillace. 

8. 1899. The Development of English Thought. 

Macmillan, pp. 415. ' Second ed. 1904. Third ed. 1910. 

9. 1902. The Theory of Prosperity. Macmillan, pp. 237. Out of print. 

10. 1903. Heredity and Social Progress. 

Macmillan, pp. 209. Out of print. 

358 


359 


Bibliography or the Works of Simon N. Patten 

11. 1907. The New Basis of Civilization. 

The Kennedy Lectures for 1905 in the School of Philanthropy con¬ 
ducted by the Charity Organization Society of the City of New 
York. 

Macmillan, pp. 220. Second ed. 1907. Third ed. 1910. Fourth 

ed. 1912. Fifth ed. 1914. Sixth ed. 1915. Seventh ed. 1918. 
Eighth ed. 1921. 

12. 1909. Product and Climax. 

Huebsch, pp. 68. 

13. 1911. The Social Basis of Religion. 

Macmillan, pp. 247. Second ed. 1913. Out of print. 

14. 1912. The Reconstruction of Economic Theory. 

Supp. to Annals, pp. 99. 

15. 1916. Advent Songs: A Revision of Old Hymns to Meet Modern Needs. 

Huebsch. Out of print. 

16. Culture and War. 

Huebsch, pp. 62. 

17. 1917. Songs of America. 

Huebsch. Second ed. 1918, pp. 32. Out of print. 

18. 1919. Folk Love: A Union of Religious, Patriotic and Social Sentiment; 

Songs. 

Huebsch, pp. 91. 

(A revision and enlargement of Songs of America and Advent 
Songs.) 

19. 1922. Mud Hollow. 

Dorrance, pp. 384. 

20. 1923. Forthcoming: Essays in Economic Theory (Alfred A. Knopf, N. Y., 

to be issued in June). A collection of articles on the general subject 
of economic theory, reprinted' from the periodicals in which they 
first appeared. Edited by Rexford G. Tugwell; with an introduction 
by Henry Rogers Seager. The essays to appear in this volume are as 
follows: The Effect of the Consumption of Wealth on the Economic 
Welfare of Society; President Walkers’ Theory of Distribution; Mal- 
thus and Ricardo; The Theory of Dynamic Economics; Can Eco¬ 
nomics Furnish an Objective Standard for Morality? The Interpre¬ 
tation of Ricardo; The Economic Causes of Moral Progress; The 
Scope of Political Economy; A New Statement of the Law of Popu¬ 
lation; The Present Problems in the Economic Interpretation of 
History; The Conflict Theory of Distribution; The Making of Eco¬ 
nomic Literature; The Political Significance of Recent Economic 
Theories; The Theory of Price in Modern Economics; Pragmatism 
and Social Science; The Background of Economic Theories; The 
Revival of Economic Orthodoxy; The Reconstruction of Economic 
Theory; Taxation After the War; The Basis of National Security; 
Peace Without Force; Problems of War Finance; Liquidation Taxes; 
The Tomorrow of Finance; Mandeville in the Twentieth Century; 
The Fallacy of Price Biding; Making National Debts National 
Blessings; and The Failure of Liberal Idealism. 


360 


The Annals of the American Academy 


II. Periodicals 

1. 1888. The Stability of Prices. 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. Ill, No. 6. Mono¬ 
graph, pp. 64. 

2. The Teaching of Mathematics. 

Educational Monthly. Vol. IX, pp. 6-13 and 79-86; Vol. X, pp. 
553-6. 

3. 1889. The Effect of the Consumption of Wealth on the Economic Welfare 

of Society. Science Economic Discussion. 

The Science Co., Vol. of short papers by economists. 

4. Malthus and Ricardo. 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. IV, No. 5, pp. 1-34. 

5. Same (Abstract). 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. IV, pp. 399. 

6. The Fundamental Idea of Capital. 

Quart. Jour. Econ., Oct. Vol. Ill, pp. 188-203. 

7. President Walkers’ Theory of Distribution. 

Quart. Jour. Econ., Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 34-49. 

8. 1890. The Decay of State and Local Governments. 

Annals. Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 26-42. 

9. The Educational Value of Political Economy. 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. V, No. 6. Monograph, 
pp. 36. 

Same: Educational Review, Vol. I, pp. 512 (reviewed). 

10. The Educational Value of College Studies. 

Educational Review, Feb. Vol. I, pp. 105-20. 

11. 1891. The Need of New Economic Terms. 

Quart. Jour. Econ., Oct. Vol. V, pp. 372-4. 

12. Economic Aspects of Technical Education. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. VI, pp. 115-22. 

13. A Contribution to the Theory of Railroad Rates. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. VI, pp. 56. 

14. Another View of the Ethics of Land Tenure. Internat. Jour. Ethics, 

Vol. I, pp. 354-70. (This is a reply to an article by J. B. Clark: 
The Ethics of Land Tenure. Internat. Jour. Ethics, Vol. I, 
pp. 62-79). 

15. 1892. The Importance of Economic Psychology to Teachers. 

Amer. Institute of Instruction Lectures, pp. 1-21. 

16. The Economic Basis of Prohibition. 

Annals, Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 59-68. 

17. Can Economics Furnish an Objective Standard for Morality? 

Jour. Speculative Philosophy, Sept. Vol. XXII, pp. 322-32. 

18. 1893. The Economic Causes of Moral Progress. 

Annals. Vol. Ill, No. 2, pp. 129-49. 

19. The Ultimate Standard of Value. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. VIII, pp. 86. 

The Idea and Definition of Value. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. VIII, pp. 94. 


20. 


361 


Bibliography of the Works of Simon N. Patten 

21. Cost and Utility. 

Annals. Vol. Ill, No. 4, pp. 409-28. 

22. Cost and Expense. 

Annals. Vol. Ill, No. 6, pp. 703-35. 

23. Some Explanation Relating to the “Theory of Dynamic Economics.” 

Quart. Jour. Econ., Oct. Vol. VII, pp. 177-86. 

24. The Interpretation of Ricardo. 

Quart. Jour. Econ., Oct. Vol. VII, pp. 322-52. 

25. Same. (Abstract and Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. VIII, pp. 77-82. 

26. The Scope of Political Economy. 

Yale Review, Nov. Vol. II, pp. 264-87. 

27. 1894. Same. (Abstract.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. IX, Sup. 62-4. 

28. The Failure of Biologic Sociology. 

Annals. Vol. IV, No. 6, pp. 919-47. 

29. The Beginning of Utility. (Briefer Communication.) 

Annals. Vol. V, No. 2, pp. 257-60. 

30. The Place of University Extension. 

University Extension, Feb. Reprinted also as No. 4 of a volume 
of pamphlets, 36 pp. 

31. The Organic Concept of Society. (Briefer Communication.) 

Annals. Vol. V, No. 3, pp. 404-9. (For a reply by Prof. Small, 
see Annals, Vol. V, No. 5, pp. 740-6.) 

32. 1895. Economics in Elementary Schools. 

Annals. Vol. V, No. 4, 461-89. (A lecture given in the summer 
meeting of the American Society for the Extension of University 
Teaching, Phila., July 18, 1894.) 

33. The Relation of Sociology to Economics. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. X, Sup. 107-10. 

34. The Teaching of Economics in the Elementary Schools. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. X, Sup. 119-20; 137-8. 

35. The Relation of Abstract to Concrete Sciences. (Briefer Communica¬ 
tion.) 

Annals. Vol. V, No. 6, pp. 942-8. 

36. The Relation of Economics to Sociology. (Briefer Communication.) 

Annals. Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 577-83. 

37. A New Statement of the Law of Population. 

Political Science Quart. Vol. X, No. 1, pp. 44-61. 

38. 1896. Economic Psychology. 

Journal of Education, Dec. 17. Vol. XLIV, pp. 412-13. 

39. The Formulation of Normal Laws with Special Reference to the 
Theory of Utility. 

Annals. Vol. VII, No. 3, pp. 426-49. 

40. Same. (Abstract and Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Economic Studies. Vol. I, Sup., 

pp. 126-30. 

41. The Relation of Sociology to Psychology. 

Annals. Vol. VIII, No. 3, pp. 433-60. 


362 


The Annals of the American Academy 


42. The Sphere of Voluntary Organizations in Social Movements. (Dis¬ 
cussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series I, Vol. I, Sup. 158-9. 

43. Theory of Social Forces. 

Supp. to Annals, pp. 151. (Appears also among the list of books. 
The volume is bound separately.) 

A reply by W. Caldwell appeared in The International Jour. Ethics, 
July, 1897. 

44. 1897. Overnurtition and Its Social Consequences. 

Annals. Vol. X, No. 1, pp. 33-53. 

45. 1903. Distribution by a Law of Rent. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn, ^ries III, Vol. IV, pp. 169-70. 

46. 1904. Education Through Activity. 

Charities and the Commons, Aug. 6. Vol. XII, pp. 790-3. 

47. The Present Problems in the Economic Interpretation of History. 

Annals. Vol. XXIV, No. 3, pp. 540-55. (An address delivered 
at the International Congress of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, 
Sept., 1904. Proceedings. Vol. 2, pp. 215-28.) 

48. Young Wives in Industry. 

Independent, Dec. 1. Vol. LVII, pp. 1244-9. 

49. 1905. University Training for Business Men. 

Educational Review, March. Vol. XXIX, pp. 217-33. 

50. 1906. New Adjustments for Women. 

Independent, Sept. 20. Vol. LXI, pp. 674-81. 

51. 1907. A Program of Social Work. 

Charities and the Commons, Apr. 20. Vol. XVIII, pp. 97-103. 

52. 1908. Who Is the Good Neighbor? 

Charities and the Commons, Feb. 29. Vol. XIX, pp. 1642-6. 

53. Are Pensions for College Teachers a Form of Socialism? 

Science, May 22. N. S., Vol. XXVII, pp. 822-4. 

54. Economic Interpretation of History. 

Charities and the .Commons, May 16. Vol. XX, pp. 228-9. 

55. The Political Significance of Recent Economic Theories. 

Annals. Vol. XXXII, pp. 82-94. 

56. Professor Patten on Monopoly and Social Work; condensed from an 
article: “Political Significance of Recent Economic Theories,” in the 
Annals, by the ed. 

Charities and the Commons. Vol. XX, pp. 451-4, July 4. 

57. The Conflict Theory of Distribution. 

Yale Review, Aug. Vol. XVII, pp. 156-84. 

58. The Social Basis of Prohibition. 

Charities and the Commons, Sept. 19. Vol. XX, pp. 705-8. 

59. The Laws of Social Attraction. 

Popular Science Monthly, Oct. Vol. LXXIII, pp. 354-60. 

60. .Better an Inspiration of Oxygen than of Alcohol. 

Charities and the Commons. Vol. XXI, pp. 299-300. 

61. 1909. Wise Words about Some Foolishness. 

Educational Review, Mar. Vol. XXXVII, pp. 293-8. 


363 


Bibliography of the Works of Simon N. Patten 

Principles of Economic Interference. 

Survey, Apr. 3. Vol. XXII, pp. 14-16. 

63. Portrait. 

Cosmopolitan, May. Vol. XLVI, pp. 669. 

64. Product and Climax. 

Survey, June 5. Vol. XXII, pp. 344. 

65. The Making of Economic Literature. 

President’s Address: Amer. Econ. Assn. Pub. of Amer. Econ. 
Assn. Series III, Vol. X, pp. 1—14; also. The Economic Bulletin, 
Vol. I, No. 4, pp. 290-300. 

66. 1910. Portrait. 

Independent, Jan. 6. Vol. LXVIII, pp. 8. 

67. The Crisis in American Home Life. 

Independent, Feb. 17. Vol. LXVIII, pp. 342-6. 

68. The Theory of Prices in Modern Economics. 

Independent, Apr. 7. Vol. LXVIII, pp. 742-6. 

69. The Phenomena of Economic Dynamics. (Discussion.) 

Pub. of Amer. Econ. Assn. Series III, Vol. XI, pp. 127-30. 

70. 1911. University Fellowships. 

Science, Feb. 10. N. S., Vol.. XXXIII, pp. 216-17. 

71. Construction vs. Distribution. 

Survey, Feb. 18. Vol. XXV, pp. 866-7. 

72. The Social Basis of Religion. 

Survey, Mar. 4. Vol. XXV, pp. 909-15. 

73. Is Christianity Ethics or Religion.'^ 

Independent, Mar. 30. Vol. LXX, pp. 655-7. 

74. The Method of Science: a Reply. 

Science, Apr. 14. Vol. XXXIII, pp. 578-83. 

(Answer to a criticism by a Dr. Minot in “Science” for Jan. 27, 
1911.) 

75. An Economic Measure of School Efficiency. 

Educational Review, May. Vol. XLI, pp. 467-79. 

76. Ideals of Progress. 

Survey, June 3. Vol. XXVI, pp. 387-92. 

77. The Church as a Social Institution. 

Independent, July 20. Vol. LXXI, pp. 131-3. 

78. The Laws of Environmental Influence. 

Pop. Science Monthly, Oct. Vol. LXXIX, pp. 396-407. 

79. The World’s Peace in the Making. 

World’s Work, Dec. Vol. XXIII, pp. 155-6. 

80. Pragmatism and Social Science. 

Jour, of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods. Vol. 
VIII, pp. 633-60. 

81. 1912. Theories of Progress. 

Amer. Econ. Review. Vol. II, pp. 61-8. 

82. Social Reform and Politics. 

Survey, Apr. 27. Vol. XXVIII, pp. 173-4. 

Types of Men. 

Pop. Science Monthly, Mar. Vol. LXXX, pp. 273-9. 


83 . 


364 


The Annals of the American Academy . 


84. The Revival of Economic Orthodoxy. 

Pop. Science Monthly, Sept. Vol. LXXXI, pp. 246-9. 

85. Wanted: A New Kind of Social Worker. 

.Survey, Nov. 2. Vol. XXIX, pp. 116. 

86. Shall Woman Be Tool or Partner.^ 

Twentieth Century Magazine, July. Vol. VI, pp. 58-62. 

87. The Reconstruction of Economic Theory. 

Annals, Supp. Nov. (Listed also among books; printed as 
separate volume.) 

88. The Background of Economic Theories. 

Pub. of the Amer. Sociological Society. Vol. VII, pp. 126-30. 
Same: Amer. Jour. Sociol., Mar., 1913. Vol. XVIII, pp. 689-93. 

89. Social Hymns. 

Survey, Dec. 7. Vol. XXIX, pp. 275. 

90. 1913. Borrowed Plumes. 

Craftsman, Jan. Vol. XXIII, pp. 489-90. 

91. Extravagance as a Virtue. 

Current Opinion, Jan. Vol. LIV, pp. 51-2. 

92. The Relation of Voluntary to Political Action. 

Survey, Jan. 4. Vol. XXIX, pp. 421-2. 

93. Facts about the Accounts of Learned Societies. 

Science, Mar. 7. Vol. XXXVII, pp. 371. 

94. The Professor on the Rampage. 

Nation, June 12. Vol. XCVI, pp. 591-2. 

95. The Reorganization of Social Work. 

Survey, July 5. Vol. XXX, pp. 468-72. 

96. The Standardization of Family Life. 

Annals. Vol. XLVIII, pp. 81-90. 

97. The Genesis of Personal Traits. 

Pop. Science Monthly, Aug. Vol. LXXXIII, pp. 149-57. 

98. Why the Study of Languages Weakens the Will. 

Current Opinion, Oct. Vol. LV, pp. 255-6. 

99. New Year Resolutions. 

Survey, Dec. 27. Vol. XXXI, pp. 360-2. 

100. The New Jurisprudence. 

Univ. of Penna. Law Review, Nov. Vol. LXII, pp. 1-16. 

101. 1914. Hymn Writing. 

Survey, Jan. 3. Vol. XXXI, pp. 403-4. 

102. The Revision of American Policies. 

Annals. Vol. LIV, pp. 191-200. 

103. The Evolution of a New Woman. 

Annals. Vol. LVI, pp. 111-21. 

104. Responsibility for the War. 

New Republic, Nov. 14. Vol. I, pp. 21-2. 

105. 1915. Economic Fallacies that Favor War. 

Moody’s, Jan. Vol. XVIII, pp. 13-17. 

106. War and the Stock Market. 

Moody’s, Mar. Vol. XVIII, pp. 113-15. 


365 


Bibliography of the Works of Simon N. Patten 

107. The Future of the Stock Market. 

Moody’s, Apr. Vol. XVIII, pp. 161-3. 

108. Becoming American. 

Open Court, July. Vol. XXIX, pp. 385-93. 

109. The Slump in Morality. 

New Republic, Sept. 11. Vol. IV, pp. 155. 

110. The Morality of Force. 

New Republic, Oct. 16. Vol. IV, pp. 286. 

Ill* Economic Zones and New Alignments of National Sentiment. 

Survey, Mar. 6. Vol. XXXIII, pp. 612-13. 

112. The Unnatural Boundaries of European States. 

Survey, Apr. 3. Vol. XXXIII, pp. 24-7. 

113. Territorial Expansion. 

The Univ. of Penna. Lectures, 1914-15. Pp. 199-209. 

114. The (jrerman Way of Thinking. 

Forum, July. Vol. LIV, pp. 18-26. 

115. 1916. Taxation after the War. 

Annals. Vol. LXIV, pp. 210-14. 

116. The Basis of National Secuiity. 

Annals. Vol. LXVI, pp. 1-11. 

117. The Day of Financial Reckoning. 

Moody’s, Jan. Vol. XIX, pp. 37-9. (Discussion by W. F. 
Hickernell. Moody’s, Feb., 1916. Vol. XIX, pp. 61-6.) 

118. The Financial Menace to America of the European War. 

Annals. Vol. LX, pp. 123-9. 

119. 1917. The Track of Evolution. 

Science Monthly, Oct. Vol. V, pp. 350-8. 

120. The Mechanism of Mind. 

Annals. Vol. LXXI, pp. 202-15. 

121. Peace Without Force. 

Annals. Vol. LXXII, pp. 31-40. 

122. Problems of War Finance. 

Yale Review, Oct. Vol. VII, pp. 73-89. 

123. 1918. The Tomorrow of Finance. 

Annals. Vol. LXXVI, pp. 257-71. 

124. The Fallacy of Price Bidding. 

Annals. Vol. LXXVIII, pp. 129-43. 

125. Liquidation Taxes. 

Annals. Vol. LXXV, pp. 165-81. . 

126. Mandeville in the Twentieth Century, 

Amer. Econ. Review. Vol. VIII, pp. 88-98. 

(“Mandeville in the Twentieth Century Replies.” J. H. 
Hollander and E. R. A. Seligman. Amer. Econ. Review. Vol. 
VIII, pp. 338-49.) 

127. 1919. Making National Debts National Blessings. 

Annals. Vol. LXXXII, pp. 39-51. 

Same. (Condensed.) 

Survey, Mar. 1. Vol. XLI, pp. 785-6. 


The Annals of the American Academy 


366 

128. The Genesis of Consciousness, 

The Monist. Vol. XXIX, pp. 432-47. 

129. The Divided Self. 

The Monist. Vol. XXIX, pp. 223-7. 

130. 1920. Backsliding on Social Work. 

Survey, June 5. Vol. XLIV, pp. 338-43. 

131. An Analysis of Mental Defects. 

Monist. Vol. XXX, pp. 107-25. 

132. Cosmic Processes. 

Monist. Vol. XXX, pp. 406-42. 

133. The Failure of Liberal Idealism. 

The Freeman. July 14 and 21. Vol. I, pp. 419-21 and 444-6. 

III. Book Reviews, Estimates and Appreciations 

(1. Reviews oj Books) 

1. Premises of Political Economy. 

E. Leser. Jahrbiicher fur Nationaldkonomie und Statistik. N. F. Bd. 
XIV, pp. 267-74. 

2. Economic Basis of Protection. 

Economic Journal, Vol. I, pp. 596. 

M. F. Rouxel. Journal des Economistes. 5. ser. t. XLI, pp. 291-3. 
Pierre Ridoire. La Reforme Sociale. 4. ser. t. 9, pp. 976. 

Ch. Gide. Revue d’Economie Politique, t. 5, pp. 410-12. . 

3. Theory of Dynamic Economics. 

John Bates Clark, Annals, Vol. Ill, pp. 31-44. 

Economic Journal, Vol. II, pp. 687. 

4. Development of English Thought. 

M. Smith. Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XV, pp. 112-19. 

C. R. Henderson. Dial, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 436-7. 

Chas. de Garmo. Educational Review, Vol. XVII, pp. 484-8. 
Economic Journal, Vol. IX, pp. 417. 

K. Diehl. Jahrbucher fur Nationaldkonomie und Statistik. 

III. Folge, Bd. XX, pp. 68. 

S. Ball. Econ. Review, Vol. X, pp. 114-18. 

5. Theory of Prosperity. 

H. R. Seager. Annals, Vol. XIX, pp. 239-55. 

A. S. Johnson. Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XVII, pp. 313-19. 

S. E. Simons. x\mer. Jour. Sociology, Vol. VIII, pp. 122-9. 

The Nation, Vol. LXXV, pp. 74. 

The Independent, Vol. LIV, pp. 2336-7. 

Gunton’s, Vol. XXIV, pp. 76-85. 

Economic Journal, Vol. XII, pp. 370. 

G. Brodnitz. Jahrbucher fur Nationaldkonomie und Statistik, III. 
Folge, Bd. XXXI, pp. 398. 

S. Ball. Econ. Review, Vol. XII, pp. 501-2. 

6. Heredity and Social Progress. 

G. N. Calkins. Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XVIII, pp. 539-41. 

The Nation, Vol. LXXVI, pp. 483. 


367 


Bibliography of the Works of Simon. N Patten 

Gunton’s, Vol. XXV, pp. 167-70. 

Annals, Vol. XXII, pp. 366-9. 

Charities and the Commons, Vol. XI, pp. 316-18. 

R. R. Marett. Economic Review, Vol. XIII, pp. 498-501. 

G. M. Wliipple. Educational Review, Vol. XXVII, pp. 309-12. 

7. The Social Basis of Religion. 

T. N. Carver. Amer. Econ. Rev. 

(Patten replied to this review in the Amer. Econ. Rev. March, 1912, 
under the title “Theories of Progress.”) 

8. The New Basis of Civilization. Charities and the Commons, Vol. XVIII, 

pp. 135-6. May 4, 1907. 

9. The Reconstruction of Economic Theory. 

B. M. Anderson, Jr. Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 123-9. 

10. Advent Songs. 

Current Opinion, Vol. LXI, pp. 331. 

11. Mud Hollow. 

J. H. Willits. Annals, Vol. CIII, pp. 15. 

The Literary Review, July 29, 1922, pp. 842. 

New York Times, May 28, 1922, pp. 16. 

W. M. Leiserson. Survey, Vol. XLVIII, pp. 627. 

The Times (London), Lit. Sup., June 1, 1922, pp. 366. 

(2. Reviews of Articles) 

1. Stability of Prices. 

Bohm-Bawerk. Jahrbiicher fur Nationaldkonomie und Statistik. N. F. 
Bd. XVIII, pp. 672, 678. 

J. L., Jahrbiicher fUr Nationaldkonomie und Statistik. N. F. Bd. XXI, 
pp. 98, 99. 

2. Fundamental Idea of Capital. 

Bohm-Bawerk. Jahrbiicher fiir Nationaldkonomie und Statistik. 
N. F. Bd. XVIII, pp. 672, 678. 

3. Educational Value of Political Economy. 

K. Diehl. Jahrbiicher fiir Nationaldkonomie und Statistik. Ill, Folge, 
Bd. II, pp. 279-80. 

Educational Review, Vol. I, p. 512. 

(3. Appreciations and Estimates) 

1. “Appreciation.” 

The Survey (July 1, 1922). Vol. XLVIII, pp. 477-8. 

2. “To Simon N. Patten” (Poem). 

Guy Nearing. The Survey (Apr. 21, 1917). Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 55. 

3. Forthcoming. Memorial Volume of appreciations by American Scholars 
read at the Memorial Meeting for S. N. Patten, held in Chicago, Dec. 29, 
1922, at which Professor R. T. Ely presided and papers were read by J. P. 
Lichtenberger, Francis Tyson, C. H. Crennan, and Rexford G. Tugwell. To 
be issued as a supplement to the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the 
Amer. Econ. Assn, for 1922; The Economic Review, Vol. XII. 

4. Forthcoming: Notes on the Life and Work of Simon N. Patten. 

Rexford G. Tugwell. Jour. Pol. Econ., Apr., 1923. Vol. XXXI, No. 2. 




4 




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REGARD TO “THE ANNALS” 


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General Advisory committee 


DR. RAFAEL ALTAMIRA 
Madrid, Spain 

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Montevideo, Unigxiay 

RT.HON, ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, M.P. 
London, England 

DR.M.J.BONN 

Berlin, Germany i 

PROF. EDWIN CANNan, LL.D. 
Oxford, England 

PROF. t. DUPRIEZ 
University of Louvain 

PROF. CARLO F. FERRARIS 
Ro:^al University, Padua, Italy 

EDMUND J. JAMES, Ph.D., LL.D. 
University of Illinois 

PROF. RAPHAEL GEORGES LEVY 
Paris, France 


PROF. L. OPPENHEIM 

University of Cambridge, England 

PROF. A. C.'PIGOU 

Universitydf Cambridge, England 

ADOLFO G. POSADA 
Madrid, Spain 

DR. WM. E. RAPPARD 
Geneva, Switzerland 

GUILLERMO SUBERCASEAUX ; 
Santiago, Chile 

SR. DR. MANUEL VILLARAn 
L ima, Peru 

HARTLEY WITHERS ' 

London, England 

SR. DR. ESTANISLAO S. ZEBALLOS 
Buenos Aires, Argentina 

G.F. PEARCE 

Melbourne, Australia 


DR. FRIDTJOF NANSEN 
Lysaker den, Norway 


The American Academy 

OF 

Political and Social Science 

Philadelphia 


President 

L, S. ROWE, Ph.D., Director-General, Pan-American Union 

Washington, D.C. 


KARL KELSEY, Ph.D. 
University of Pennsylvania 


Vice-Preside n ts 


HCN. HERBERT HOOVER 
Secretary of Commerce 


DAVID P. BARROWS, PhJ). 
University of California 


Secretary Treasurer 

J- P. LICHTENBERGER, Ph.D. CHARLES J. RHOADS, Es(j. 

University of Pennsylvania Brown Brothers and Company, Philadelphia 









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